Cyclic Life: Searching for a dream
by blood90
Summary: Sasuke had lived a long and complete life and departed the mortal plane at peace and content. Coming back to life really ruined everything. Stuck in a cycle of life and death he searches for rest, for a home, and a way to stay at rest forever.
1. At Rest He Lay

At the old age of 95 surrounded by friends and family, Uchiha Sasuke died.

The man who had once been known as the second strongest being in existence had died to old age. No great battle, no last act of sacrifice, no, Sasuke had not even lifted his sword for the last 20 years. This was a time of peace. With the everyoung 7th Hokage the great Uzumaki Naruto pulling the Elemental Nations into its 80th year of Unity. War was a thing of the past, nowadays it was technology and progress that ruled the nations, it was universities where children flocked too, doctors and scientists mixing chakra and progress to create new and incredible inventions that had made life for all comfortable and pleasant.

That was where Sasuke lay right then, in the great hospital of Konoha where Uchiha Sakura and her assistant, her granddaughter Mika, had done all they could, but in the end even their incredible talents were not enough to keep the shinigami at bay.

Sakura let out a long tired breath. She felt old, despite her appearance of a young women in the peak of her life she felt everyone of her years. Her intense chakra control and constant cycling of medical chakra through her system would gift her a longer than normal life, but even she could not stave off death forever. No one, not even Naruto who had only aged 8 years in the past 80 could keep death forever, besides who would want too.

Hinata's death had almost broken the usually indomitable Hokage and it was only after two months of silence that Sasuke had pulled himself from his bed to visit his friend. The two had spent a long night drinking and talking and when Naruto walked out the next morning he had gone straight into the Hokage's office and picked up the paperwork right where he had left it.

But now Sasuke's life had finally run its course, a long life filled with love and achievements despite the rocky start that had almost been forgotten under the weight of all his achievements, no one remembered Sasuke the avenger, Sasuke the traitor, the Uchiha clan were revived, a full 20 members strong by now and Sasuke was second only to the Hokage in terms of power,respect and admiration.

Uchiha Sasuke had completed all his goals, he'd lead a good life. With a final kiss to his forehead Sakura pushed the eyes of her love closed.

They immediately sprang open.

For the first time in 80 years, Sakura was frozen in the grips of a killing intent strong enough to break even her resolve. With a grunt of exertion she released her full power, feeling the insane full strength of her chakra rush through the body giving her just enough strength to push herself through the almost solid miasma of chakra surrounding her, stepping over the unconscious forms of her family, all too weak to withstand the feeling of hatred and fury that had descended upon them, she forced herself to her husband's side where she could feel the source of the toxic energy.

Sasuke was jerking and twitching, his eyes were wide both having formed the Rinne-Sharingan, they span madly, faster than the human eye could see so that the pinwheels had disappeared into a fully black ring within the purple. The twitching increased and it became clear it wasnt twitching, Sasuke was rising, his entire body held alight by the chakra over him as his form rose from the bed, alight in glowing red and purple chakra that raced around him.

It raced faster now, faster and faster until Sasuke's whole body was hidden from view in the raging inferno of death. Naruto barged into the room. It had been less than two seconds since the start of the outburst. More than enough time for him to reach the hospital from his office across town. With a scream he dove into the flames desperate to control whatever this was, but was denied, thrown back in an explosion of purple flame that sent him crashing through the walls of the room.

And then it was gone. The pressure that had crushed all to the floor disappeared like it had never existed. The flames surrounding Sasuke were gone and he was falling back to his bed like a ragdoll.

"Sasuke!" Rushing to his side Sakura threw herself onto the bed where her husband lay, to find him lying on his back looking straight back at her. She took in his form as he coughed heavily into his fist, lifting his other hand to lift long black hair from his smooth un-wrinkled face. He was 16 again. There was no other way to say it, Sakura simply stared at her resurrected husband who could have just come back from the 4th Shinobi War.

"Sakura" Even his voice had changed, back to the dry dulcet tones of his youth, "I'm back"

Sakura feinted.

Page Break

It was a max power, Rinnegan fueled Izanagi. That was the best guess they had come up with anyway, after the quick scare of possible edo-tensei or possession by Orochimaru, because it's always a possibility, had been squashed they all found they were too happy that he was alive to care why or how.

The next few years were strange for the citizens of Konoha, after Sakura reduced the age of her genjutsu to match Sasuke. The fact that she had a way to escape all the cradle snatcher jokes infuriated sasuke who had been made fun of for 'perving' on his much younger wife for the past 50 years since she figured out Tsunade's old jutsu. The two had gone back to acting like a couple of teenagers, joined by Naruto who was extremely happy to have friends who appeared his age again. Together Konoha suffered under the wrath of a new spree of pranks that at times had the entire village stopped as people tried to sort out the confusion caused by three S near SS rank ninja screwing around.

For Sasuke, he was just enjoying the peak of his life all over again, except this time without a war to fight, a clan to avenge or a best friend to kill, even his right arm was back, a fact that relieved Naruto more than he would ever say, Sasuke knew the blonde had always felt guilty when his had grown back out of nowhere. He lay back against the bench in his family estate watching as children screamed and ran around about him, Sakura lay across his body, head resting in his lap as the two curled up under the blazing heat of the sun. The Uchiha compound was a different place these days, the walls surrounding the district having been torn dorn almost 50 years ago, opening the whole compound up to the outside world, and here in the great park he'd created out of one of the old training grounds, children from every family, civilian and ninja alike ran around playing and laughing, enjoying the glorious weather that only Fire country could provide.

He felt the visitor an age before he saw him, truthfully he was are of almost everyone in the district thanks to his senses honed over 100 years of life, opening one eye slowly he regarded the two men steadily walking towards him. Daichi and Amano were two of the greatest Shinobi of their generation, Daichi, a grandchild to Kiba, was flanked by his two coal black Ninken as usual while Amano, a clanless Ninja who had made waves through Sakura's Practical Science school, seemed to glide across the ground, legs completely hidden beneath the long dragging Kimono he wore.

He feigned sleep as the two stood patiently in front of him, wishing to put off any sort of work for as long as possible, until Sakura elbowed him lightly, evidently as annoyed by their presence as he was. Cracking one eye slowly open, one eye lazily taking the view of the two into focus he casually greeted the two Elite Jounin.

"Ah, Amano-kun, Daichi-chan, so nice to see you two"

"Sasuke-sama" the two greeted in turn, Daichi grinding his teeth at the disrespect shown by one who appeared almost 10 years younger than himself. "Hokage-sama requests your presence in the tower". Your an hour late already, his eyes seemed to shout as he made swirling motions with his hands as if attempting to shoo Sauke from his relaxed position.

"Well if his lordship demands i must go" Gently pushing Sakura from his chest, laying her down on the bench behind him, he rose up, stretching both arms above his head and giving off a lazy yawn as he stood. "Alright then" He spoke as he moved off at a slow stroll, the two Jounin falling into step either side, "lets go see what the Dobe wants". He ignored the squawk of indignation from his left, well used to the sounds of outrage when ever he insulted the 'immortal god of Konoha', it was funny these days no one even understood why Sasuke called him dobe, they would certainly never believe it was actually true once upon a time.

Leading the way down paved sidewalks weaving through an almost constant stream of people milling through the centre of Konoha Sasuke missed the old days, now he could barely see the sky from behind the large buildings and towers that surrounded the central district on all sides, sitting in the middle, almost dwarfed by its neighbours sat the Hokage tower. The same building had stood strong for almost 80 years now, ever since they had rebuilt after Pein an entire lifetime ago, though at some point some mysterious prankster had painted the entire thing orange, and for some reason Naruto had never given the order to fix it. Funny that.

Up the stairs he walked, past the mission office, mostly c rank these days as the need for assassinations and destruction had lessened, in fact there was talk of redoing the grading scale all together, Ninja were more creators than destructors, sealing arrays and creation from nature being far more an essential skill than killing in this new world. Past the offices of tactics and preemption, several Naara lazing around not one even touching their work. Finally he came to the top floor where one large door lay, ignoring the receptionist, who came forward to greet him attempting to press a visitors badge on him, he pushed the wide doors open, walking in to stand before a great oak desk, behind which Naruto lazed in his huge padded chair guzzling down a cup of ramen, three more empty pots strewn about him.

"Dobe" Sasuke greeted, nodding at his friend and ignoring the silent glare from the poorly hidden anbu.

Naruto ignored him, choosing instead to finish his ramen. Only when the last noodle had disappeared down his throat did he put the cup down, finally looking up to Sasuke, "Oh Sasuke glad you could make it, your late though" he half glared through slitted eyes.

"Sorry, I must have got lost on the road of life"

The two stared at each other for a second before, Naruto turned away, one side of his mouth twitching at the private joke. "Ok everyone out, i need to speak to Sasuke in private", waving away the disagreements and arguments from his subordinates he gestured for them to leave, chuckling to himself as they continued to argue even as they slowly backed out the room, sending annoyed looks at Sasuke the entire time.

"Why do you do that?" Sasuke asked in exasperation, "they already hate me because i 'don't respect you', your just needlessly antagonising them even more!"

"Yeah that's mostly the reason why, that and even i need a break you know" Naruto gestured to his desk where the piles of paperwork seemed to be in a constant state of falling and righting themselves.

"Oh don't try to trick me with that, this is the exact same paperwork that you had 8 months ago, all you do in here is eat ramen and write icha icha"

"Heh" Naruto looked away and ran a hand through his long blonde hair that grew past his shoulders in a loose mane, "So you noticed that, yeah no way would i still be here if i had not passed off everything to subordinates, all i approve now now is S-class missions and major political moves. Speaking of which"

Sasuke caught the file thrown across the room at him just before it smacked him in the face, glaring at Naruto he opened it up. "Shinobi University, the inter village training scheme" Sasuke read out from the report, "What the hell is this?"

"Your new task" Naruto quickly followed up before Sasuke could interrupt, "Oh don't give me that i know you and Sakura are bored as hell here, i have it on good authority you haven't left the compound in a week. This will give you the chance for a new start, you'll be the acting head of the school with Sakura taking charge of the Medical wing, by giving you two as teachers there's no way the other villages can complain that we're only providing half the amount of gold as everyone else".

"Oh so thats why your really doing it"

"No but seriously Sasuke" and now Naruto was sitting up in his chair, hands flat on the desk which he was slightly leaning across, "This will be good for you, you've had no responsibilities or job in 30 years, you've got a new life now. Live it".

"Maybe your right Naruto, i guess there really is a first time for everything"

"Oh fuck you Teme" Naruto threw a chopstick at Sasuke, the serious mood gone almost as soon as it arrived.

2 years Later

Sasuke yawned as he rose from his comfortable bed enjoying the bright rays of light that spattered across the room lighting the walls in splashes of yellow light. Next to him his wife lay in continued sleep, it took an explosive tag going off next to her ear to wake her up these days, at the age of 103 even Sakura was beginning to feel the effects of age, no mind the fact she appeared only 35, having scaled her age up after getting sick of students disrespecting her for her apparent youth.

Sasuke however had decedid he enjoyed acting the kid as much as possible, spending almost the first 4 months of his time at the University pretending to be a student, only to reveal himself at the christmas welcome speech on the arm of Sakura after betting a classmate he couldn't score with their hot teacher.

He was still friendly to all his old friends and well respected throughout the school after a few _practical_ demonstrations of his strength to prove his might. Destroying the nearby mountain with a sweep of his hand to make way for the new sports ground might have done the trick.

In fact being so friendly might have caused problems as he was now being bombarded by petitions and requests to be studied for the greater good of science, if the students could recreate his sharingan they said, they could maybe achieve immortality for the entire human race. Sasuke pitied their naivete so simply ignored all requests not willing to confront any in an argument.

Even without getting the chance to study Sasuke the students research progressed in leaps and bounds, the weather was now controlled by a rotating group of water and lightning elementals, together using their powers to spread rain round the nations as it was needed. Suna was seeing the benefits of its new aquaduct, carrying water all the way from the mountains of Tsuchi to the doors of the Shinobi village itself.

Yet the real new age power was of course Spring country, having always been on the forefront of technology and now that the world revolved around Science, Spring had quickly set itself up as a pioneer of all the latest tech. The annual Spring conference, the expo of all the latest releases was to be held outside the country for the first time ever this year, held within Shinobi University as a sign of the free trade of knowledge and the unity of the nations. Sasuke only saw it as another headache he had to deal with but no one listened to him complain, Sakura was far too busy preparing for the expo to listen to his mutterings anyway.

Instead Sasuke simply chose to concentrate on the upcoming event, he might not care for the honor or prestige of the event but he would be damned if his Universities event did not blow every expo before it out of the water. If you can afford to do it; overdo it, was almost the motto of the Uchiha, though admittedly it used to describe how many explosive tags to use in a fight. Nethertheless Sasuke was a true Uchiha so by the time the festival came round he had built a whole new area in the Uni, a large empty warehouse where all the stalls could be set up in a cool room with no pesky outside conditions like sunlight or air, a large seated arena where lectures and ceremonies could be held, and, in fit of pride he had created a large hulking statue to watch over the proceedings, a visage of the god Susanoo himself.

The day of the expo dawned bright and cheerful and Sasuke lead the proceeding off early with a small speech at the entrance gate before cutting the ribbon and letting the thorng of guests into his new centre of learning. He spent the whole day strolling round the exhibits put on by students from round the globe, amazed in the things the new generation was making, televisions less than an inch thick, seals that cheaply made electricity from converting water currents, even a new way of disposing of waste through pocket dimensions.

He took the time to briefly drop by Sakura's stand where she was overseeing some of her students demonstrate organ replacement on some involuntary animal patients. "You really are amazing" he congratulated her, kissing the top of her head as he watched the rabbit coma alive just minutes after having its stomach removed and swapped with another rabbits, that was also already hopping round its pen.

Laughing she pushed him away, admonishing him for the public display of affection. "Go on get out of here your distracting the audience" it was true there were a fair few people staring, more interested at seeing the technically 2nd oldest human alive, though Sakura claimed he didn't count as his body was really only 20, though she might have just been trying to tease him with another thing Naruto was better than him at.

It wasn't till much later in the day that they met up again, once all the booths had packed up for the day and most the crowd was congregated around the arena where a great many stalls and food stands had set up, along with several little bars which plenty of students were enjoying in the way that only students can. It was a veritable party atmosphere going round and when the arena doors opened everyone cheered and slowly made their way inside, stopping first to stock up on snacks and drinks as they prepared for the opening days celebration.

Sasuke stood central stage as he waited for the crowd to settle round, exuding a light pressure when they took longer than he would have liked to quieten.

"Welcome one and all to the 40th Spring Expo!" He announced to huge cheers from the crowd who were in a highly festival mood.

"Every year we are given the chance to celebrate all the extraordinary creations of this year in our community and for the first time we have the chance to hold this at our new University. But let us not forget our founders, please put your hands together to the Spring Committee"

Turning to the the group seated behind him he started a round of claps, getting furious suport from the crowd.

"And now, over to the president Kazahana Riku who has some words for you" Taking one last look around the crowd, Sasuke stept back, giving the stage up to the tall regal looking figure who took the central stage with a mike in hand, either unable or unwilling to use chakra to do so.

"Students, Guests, honored members of the Scientific community, i welcome you to this glorious festival of knowledge" Riku spoke in a calm unwavering voice, her tone melodious and enrapturing, holding the entire audience silent as she spoke.

"The elemental nations was once a barbaric place, the villages warring and scraping with each other, too busy fighting each other too learn more about the world around them, they used great and powerful ninjutsu but did not truly understand their own power or capabilities. But now we have a peaceful land, and our new world is shaped by progression not power, now any can learn and all that have the drive to understand shall."

"But" And she paused, looking around the arena, "there still exists those that think they hold knowledge that is theirs and theirs alone, those who would hold humanity back from progress, these obstacles must be removed" and she turned to look Sasuke directly in the eye, but Sasuke was already moving towards her, quickly making signals to various security around the arena.

"Unfortunately all you here have been deemed too under the thumb of the old order to spare, we thank you for your sacrifice"

Sasuke moved towards her in a blink, this had gone on too long, he was ending it. Now.

"This is all for the greater good"

Riku, and all other members of the committee, exploded.

And Sasuke new no more.

Page Break

The dirt was burning. There was no vegetation. The buildings lay in piles of ruined concrete and metal, all wood, glass and plaster disintegrated into dust. To any other who had been standing there it would have seemed like a barren wasteland, abandoned for centuries, the ruins of an old civilisation. Sasuke saw the true wreckage, he saw the green flames of radioactive flame sweep across the plains, watched as it continued to tear down all before it, stripping away even the remaining concrete layer by layer, he had been watching for two days now.

Standing still in one spot as he watched the flames slowly wear down the diamond in front of him.

The diamond that used to be part of Sakura's wedding ring.

His wife was dead. He had no further thoughts other than that one. He was alone again.

He stood there for a day more, ignoring the pangs of hunger his newly revived 16 year old body gave off as it begged for sustenance, having technically never eaten since its birth. Eventually the last microscopic atom of crystal disintegrated. Sakura was truly gone.

Sasuke turned and started walking, he wasn't sure where he was headed. Away from here seemed a good start.

An hour into his journey he finally saw something new besides the toxic wasteland of the burned out plains, a procession of vehicles were driving towards him. Huge cumbersome lorries each mounted with some sort of field generator, in their wake they left brown, unburnt dirt. Sasuke's eyes could see every molecule as it was sucked into their field and spat out clean, uninfected.

For a second he marveled at the creations and humans ability to counter such evil. Then he saw the side of a truck, the flag of spring country painted across its side.

In a heartbeat he was standing in front of the Truck and it crashed into him with all the force a 3 ton vehicle travelling at 50 mph can have. The truck stopped dead in front of him, its front caved in, the two drivers dead, blood spattering the windscreen from their caved in heads.

Raising a hand he brought down lightning, turning two more vehicles into smouldering wrecks, turning to the last one he let loose with two small bolts, hitting both rear wheels and bringing the vehicle to a halt.

Slowly he walked towards it, watching in interest as a hatch popped open four figures piling out, all clothed in thick rubber suits with reflective glass visors. Not even giving them time to land on the ground he was among them, letting loose with a round of punches that turned the chest cavities of three into a liquid ooze, grabbing the last one he slammed his victim to the ground, tearing the head of the outfit clean off to stare deep into the eyes of a terrorfied young girl.

"What have you done?" His tone was light, a perfect monotone that managed to convey more terror than screaming abuse ever could, "Why did you do this"

The girl was crying in pain, her skin already burning away from the radiation.

"Talk" he spoke, shaking her lightly.

"We, W, we did it to stop you!" And now she was the one staring up, the hatred in her eyes burned as she gazed into red ringed eyes, "You scum thought you ruled the world, the great 5 had always been the best and you couldn't stand the thought of little Spring country being better than you, that was the real reason behind the Shinobi Uni? a way to take the power away from us! Well we didn't stand for it, none of us will. The world has risen up against the great 5, and by the time it's over you'll all be gone. You and your 'immortal' Hokage included".

With that she was gone, the radiation having had enough time to completely burn through her throat. Sasuke dropped her, letting the body tumble to the ground. He couldn't believe it, of all the stupid reasons it had come back to power once more, the cycle of hatred had restarted, or maybe it had never stopped.

Turning towards Konoha, Sasuke started walking. He may not want to live, but he still had family to protect, the Uchiha would not die while he lived.

Page Break

Konoha was burning. But it was not the total devastation of the university, Sasuke was relieved to see.

He was greeted at the gate by a cheering crowd, as dust covered survivors rushed towards him, peppering him with questions. Where had he been? Was he the only survivor? Where was Sakura?

Sasuke ignored it all, instead he turned to an anbu in the crowd, walking up to stand before him, "Report" he stated.

Immediately the Anbu straightened up began to respond. "Sir, the village was attacked by a mixed force of traitors and Ninja from all the minor villages, they were lead by a Moss country Jonin, the head of the space time waste project Ken." Pausing for a second as if unsure how to proceed he started again, this time slower a noticeable stutter.

"They struck without warning, Sir, they had entered earlier that day to discuss the next stage of our new waste plan, they were demonstrating their new technique in the tower and it activated, taking the whole tower with it. I'm sorry sir" and he looked on the verge of tears, looking round everyone was.

"It took the Hokage with it, Sir"

"Naruto is dead"

Sasuke couldn't think. The world was spinning away from him. Sakura was dead, it hurt but he always knew it would happen eventually. His home was destroyed, his students were dead, again he could cope, he would avenge them.

Naruto was dead. That was the last straw that broke him.

He didn't cry, he didn't scream. He didn't even feel sad. All he felt was RAGE.

"They will soon learn the meaning of the Will of Fire"

His voice raised loud over the mutterings of all around him who went silent as he began to speak.

"These fools who think they can take from us, they will soon realise that Konoka does not deal so easily with traitors. We will find those responsible. We will find their allies, their families, all who helped cause this destruction."

The crowd was deathly silent all enraptured by the sight of his eyes, that burnt in righteous fury, red spinning round purple as for the first time in 70 years Sasuke let another see his Rinnegan.

"And we will have our vengeance!"

The crowd roared their approval, this was a peaceful generation, one who had never known suffering, or hunger, or pain. But they were ready to cause it, they felt it deep within them, the animalistic hunger to destroy the enemies who had hurt them.

Sasuke set out into the centre of town, keen to start preparation for the war to come.

The shortest and bloodiest reign of any Kage past or present, had begun.

Page Break

The four Kage sat around the war table. Suna, Konoha, Kumo and Kiri all represented in the great Shinobi alliance once more. Iwa had already been destroyed, it had become one of the biggest economies in this new age, its deep mines and the discovery of uranium deposits under its inhospitable mountains had made it a large provider to many of the new founding industries created in the age of Science. This was also its downfall, a well placed explosion within their processing plant sent radioactive waste exploding across the city, like the University it was wiped clean in burning fire, Spring had been quick to move in with their cleansing machines and were already repurposing the mines to their own advantage.

Suna had also suffered from this defeat, without the water from Iwa they had come to rely on the expanded population could not deal with the sudden lack of resources and the people had fled to Konoha. Kumo and Kiri had come out unscathed, thanks mostly to their relative remoteness, but had sent their main forces out to join the growing army around Konoha, leaving just a defensive guard to keep their own homes safe.

Against them was a union of most of the major villages and countries, Spring, Kusa, and Wave being the main force behind the alliance. Already small skirmishes had started along the border, Sasuke had personally lead a foray into the neighbouring Taki, the village had remained hidden for centuries and even Sasuke couldn't find the way in, which is why he chose to erase the entire village from the earth, turning the mountain the village was supposedly hidden inside to dust. It had been a rude awakening to the enemy forces, all had heard of the power of the Legendary ninja but after so long the stories were believed to be just that, stories.

The people of Konoha were relieved to see their new Kage was just as strong, after almost 80 years with the same leader they could barely even think of having a new one. Sasuke had immediately reinstated the old war protocols, training had been stepped up, and the entirety of the top three years of the academy, where graduation had been changed to 15, had been immediately promoted to genin, putting as many ninja to the ground as possible.

And yet they were losing, Spring had obviously been planning this for a long time, their armies had come from nowhere and taken high priority targets quickly within the first day of the war, hitting the conference had been a masterstroke, wiping out the top minds from every nation while replacing their allies with clones to keep up appearances. Now the great four were stuck in a war with a vastly better equipped enemy who held most of the factories and food stores on the continent.

There was only one thing the enemy had not accounted for, the hidden power of the great five, a power the leaders wanted to unleash.

"This is madness" A, 6th of his name, shouted down the table, "we have the power to crush these upstarts and your not allowing us to use it?" The other two nodded in agreement all three looking towards Sasuke who was looking down in resignation.

"Naruto spent his whole life fighting to reduce tension between the villages, these weapons, these techniques that he hid, he did it to create a better future, i can't destroy his dream now"

If anything this just enraged the muscled Kage even more, "A better future? Iwa has been destroyed! You destroyed Taki! Naruto never knew the power of these new weapons when he hid all the ancient knowledge, these nuclear bombs are more powerful than all but the strongest techniques of the past, if you don't give us something to fight with, we'll be dead within the month" Just admitting it made it all the more real for the three, A sank back into his seat, all the anger and rage was gone, replaced by something more real, desperation.

"Please Sasuke, if this war goes on much longer how long will it be before they bomb my village to make us give up, we have no defences for this, please give us the weapons we need to fight!"

"You think these bombs are strong? You know nothing." Sasuke snapped, finally looking up from the table to speak directly to his comrades.

"These weapons we have locked away have the power to destroy the world! Your worried about your nation being destroyed? I'm thinking about the fate of the whole world!" He slammed his fist down onto the tabletop, the others all flinching as it crashed and broke.

Sasuke was now standing, breathing heavily as he cooled down from his moment of rage. Feeling suddenly guilty at the scared looks from the other leaders, he managed to control himself once more.

"I guess maybe i could show you a few techniques, as long as i get to choose what you use, there are some things we could use"

Looking relieved that he'd calmed down and thankful for getting something out of the discussion the others all quickly agreed.

"Very well, we'll spend a month here preparing while sending small skirmishes out to track the enemy, then, we'll begin out counter!"

Page Break

When the Shinobi Alliance countered, it came out of nowhere. The union had been making rapid advances into Fire country before hitting a literal wall, Konoha had turned the forest surrounding their village into a literal death trap of traps, hidden outposts and killer terrain. From this barricade the advance had been halted and they had instead set a perimeter around the forest and formed a blockade. This was a fine tactic as far as the leaders were concerned, they held all the resources, this stalling only gave them time to create new and stronger weapons, which they could launch at a stationary enemy. The men grew complacent quickly, daily skirmishes turned quickly to border patrols, never quite entering the forest and allowing a brief peace between the sides.

Which was why it was such a shock to them when their entire camp was disintegrated out of nowhere.

The meteor fell out the sky without any sign of its approach on the cloudy night, it hit the camp dead centre taking the entire vanguard command and most of the force out in one hit. Any survivors were quickly dispatched by the flood of ninja that ran from the forest right as the survivors pulled themselves from the wreckage.

By nightfall Fire country was cleansed of any Union presence and the Union were not even aware of it. The next day a backup force was slaughtered as it entered from grass, caught unaware as it brought fresh supplies to the troops on the front line, one survivor managed to get away letting the command know the enemy was on the loose.

A rapid response was made and a crack team of the very best from each village was sent out to contain the attack, they found nothing but the remains of the dead, Fire country was empty once more.

This message was sent back to command immediately through their long range radio unit, they had just enough time to puzzle over this before they received another message from stone, then demon country, then wave and forest. Each message was the same, a Kage is here they seem to be preparing an attack, then silence…

By the 3rd day of the counterattack the number of villages in the union had shrunk to 2.

The decision was made and all troops retreated to Spring, its barriers were strong enough to repel the strike of a god, there they would make their last stand.

Page Break

Sasuke surveyed his army as they settled into their camp surrounding the large village in front of them. The land of Spring had retained its name ever since Sasuke had helped free it from Dotou all those years ago, none of the current occupants would remember that though, and Sasuke would not remind them, he had no time to feel sympathy for those that had brought about the first war in 80 years for no better reason than greed and envy.

He turned to his left to see A approaching, the Raikage had turned into a strong supporter of Sasuke when Sasuke had helped him unlock his thunder shroud, turning him to an S class ninja almost as strong as the legendary 3rd Raikage had been.

"The camp is secure, we have the bastards pinned in on all sides, they won't be escaping any time soon"

"And our back Scouts?" Sasuke questioned.

A spat on the ground, "Back scouts? For what, we have them all trapped within there bubble, there's none left to spring some sneak attack on us"

"Their primary attack came from nowhere and obliterated our major advantages within a day" Sasuke replied, admonishing A as he spoke down to him like a parent to a disobedient child. "Our enemy has shown themselves to be smart and sneaky, the two elements of a good ninja, that asides, this has been far too easy, they retreated without any hesitation" Sasuke trailed off, unwilling to fully reveal his thoughts, that they were walking into a trap.

"Well, if you think so" despite his words A looked like he thoroughly disagreed with the idea "I can post a couple of scouts i guess, means men away from the front lines though"

"I'm sure we can do without 10 men on the front, see it done A" With that Sasuke departed, he had far more to inspect and a whole army to worry over.

He quickly checked in with his chosen strike team, the Mizukage and a host of other water users were assessing the lake bordering the barrier, he had come with the plan himself, and after Sasuke's attempt at death by Meteorite had failed it sounded like the best idea they had. The plan was a continuous wave of water dragons and spears to fire continuously into the wall, the high rate of fire continuously should be enough to overload the entire barrier network, this was to be made doubly effective as the barrier bordered the water, the ninja were currently imbuing the lake with as much chakra as possible over a long period, the prominent seal masters were surrounding the area in a thick layer of suppressors, forming a perimeter round the lake and locking all the chakra in. This meant when the time came to attack the chakra cost would be payed, and as the failed attacks fell, they would land back in the lake, fueling the next round of attacks and losing very little chakra from bleed off as the barrier was chakra negative to stop absorbers just sucking it away. The barrage would continue till the barrier failed, it was a matter of when, not if.

Sasuke started the attack that night, after a long sleep from midday the team woke up fresh and started a rolling wave of attacks that went on constantly for hours, the response was lightning fast and within 22 seconds of the first strike the Grass Jonin Commander was outside watching the deluge land against the barrier, he watched for half an hour as the team continued before leaving, a grim look upon his face.

After 5 hours of attack, Sasuke let the team off for an hours break, determined not to give the barrier time to recharge he lead his only team in a prolonged assault of combination attacks of fire and lightning, rolling teams of 20 off and on every 15 minutes they just managed to keep up the pace of attack, the constant chakra use exhausting all but the most experienced ninja. Just managing to keep it going it was a relief to all when the Kiri team took over again, the Mizukage starting it off with a ice tipped spear of water shooting straight at the lake that punctured the barrier in one, Sasuke's team cheered, even as the barrier regrew once the attack subsided, it was getting weaker.

An hour later the time was close, the barrier was cracking before their eyes, every water dragon pushing it closer to its breaking point, it would not be long before the final battle. Sasuke stood with his refreshed team, he was to be one of a three pronged attack to strike quickly into the heart of the city, massed resistance was expected but Sasuke was confident that the war would be over by today, then he could start to deal with the fallout.

With a roar the Mizukage surged his chakra, physically manifesting it round him in a blue shroud that froze the surface around him as he lifted himself and almost half the lake with him into a swirling bulldozer of water, tipped by his icy platform. At the last second he jumped away, letting his projectile smash straight through the barrier and deep into the earth on the other side. Cracks splintered outwards from the point of contact, but the barrier held.

Sasuke was already moving, coming down from a leap that had taken him to the height of the barrier he came down in a two footed strike, shattering the cracked screen below him. In a chain reaction the splinters on all sides spread more and more, and finally shattered. The barrier was down. The final battle was now.

The counter attack by spring was both instant and devastating. Before the rest of the army had even crossed the boundary of the now non-existent barrier seals lit up on the ground, launching cannistors in high arcs to land among the forces charging in, they detonated in huge plumes of purple gas bringing entire squads to their knees hacking up blood. The rest charged forwards, sparing nary a glance back to their fallen comrades, there was no space for sympathy on the battlefield.

The first line of human defenders was not encountered for a further 200m, before that the army progressed through a death field of traps and long range attacks launched from the distant defenders and the walls of the city itself.

Sasuke met the front line with an electrified punch that hit the first man with such force it sent him flying back to hit three more behind, all four dying to the conclusive discharge that coursed through the first man's body. Sasuke did not stop, he ran straight through the crowd, hands shooting out in lightning fast attacks that dispatched any foolish enough to get in his way. Behind him his squad met the now broken and confused enemy and quickly mopped up the remains before following after Sasuke again, sprinting to even attempt to catch up with him.

Sasuke ran on. Confusingly he did not sense any further defenders ahead, nonchalantly he dodged a couple of kunai launched from wires in a tree and jumped a pitfall before it could trigger, in fact that one squad was the only enemies he could sense at all outside the village and they seemed more like a trap squad caught off guard. This wasn't adding up, reaching the boundary of the forest Sasuke stopped in a branch, looking across the plain to gaze upon the walls of Spring. Rising up from the field it sat inside the village of spring was surrounded by 40ft high gleaming white walls of stone, the battlements at the top packed with ninja and heavy artillery alike, Sasuke recognised Kunai launchers he'd last seen mowing down loyal Spring samurai all those years ago, though the large generator fixed to the back made him think these would pack a lot more of a punch.

He had time for a few more seconds of inspection before he was joined by his squad. 30 Ninja, the remainder of a force of 40, hung just in the shadows of the forest. Activating his radio piece Sasuke checked in.

"Leaders, report"

"All clear in the East" Replied the Kazekage, his smooth voice coming clearly down the line. "No opposition met, 3 losses due to traps"

"Same" Grunted the Raikage, "4 to traps and none of the bastards in sight"

"Move forward towards the village" Sasuke Commanded, "But stay within the forest, i have eyes on the defences and there heavy, I'm going to prepare a strike give me ten"

"Hai" They both replied before going static.

Sasuke crouched on the branch, preparing himself for what would hopefully be his last attack of the war, moving his hands slowly through a set of hand signs he focused chakra to his core, building more and more until the very air was shifting with the flow of his breath as he pulled the surroundings to his will, completing the last sign he raised his hand high filled with chakra, reached out skywards for the connection he sought and pulled.

For a moment nothing. Then slowly the clouds above parted as a meteor carved through them, this one was nothing like the ones before, almost four times the size this one glowed from the heat of it breaking through the atmosphere as it barreled towards the village with unstoppable force.

The defenders on the walls cried out, staring upwards with no time to run or escape from the collision zone they simply stared as their fate travelled down towards them.

It seemed like it was all over, as the meteor fully cleared the cloud so that its full bulk was in view as it continued to fall towards the ground.

Then the sky turned red.

From the 4 axis of the village red lasers shot out into the sky meeting the meteor in a flash of light and sound, the sky disappeared in a haze of dust and debris and many were knocked off their feet by the force of the shockwave that flattened trees and knocked stones from the walls of the city.

The dust cleared to reveal an empty cloud and a glittering rain of crystalised dust falling down. The only remains of the meteor that had been vaporised by the powerful lasers of light.

All was silent, then with a scream the defenders cheered, surprised and shocked they still lived and filled with confidence once more.

"A good attempt Uchiha-san" A hollow voice silenced all cheer upon the walls as a holographic head appeared floating across the village.

"You are strong, i must say, even our combined power and technology struggles to keep up with your force" He sighed, his huge eyes rolling up towards the sky "It is a shame it has come to this, we really did have more to learn from you, it is a shame suck knowledge must die now"

"I wouldn't be so quick to proclaim my death" Sasuke walked forwards from the tree line, eyes spinning and purple chakra swirling round him as the hulking form of Susanoo stood before the village, "I still have far more power than a couple of meteorites at my disposal"

"Haha wonderful" and now a pair of hands materialised in the hologram clapping enthusiastically, "Still you have more to show, you really are strong it is a good thing we prepared for such strength"

One hand disappeared from view briefly, rising back up now holding a small remote.

"You all fought so bravely, your counter truly was impressive, but did you not wonder why you felt no resistance? I'm sorry to say we had rather forgotten about you, we were too busy focusing on the next step of our plan. To start an experiment again you must completely cleanse the area of all outside interference, I'm sorry but that's all the great 5 were, an interference" The smile turned vicious for just a second showing the feelings of victory and satisfaction the hologram tried to hide behind his regal demeanour.

"To one last experiment then, Sasuke, i know not what your latest form is but let's see if it can withstand this."

"Even so you'll be the only one left. Goodbye"

And the world turned white.

Sasuke felt his body engulfed by a stream of chakra and energy that knocked him off his feet, even under the power of Susanoo that kept him aloft. He forced himself to his feet and then pushing chakra to the legs of his construct he leapt into the air.

High above the earth he flew manipulating the very gravity around him to force his way through the deluge that still buffeted his ethereal body. Breaking through the cloud to see the sun above he gasped at the sight below him. The forest, the lake, as far as the eye could see was being swept away under a glowing white fog that was sweeping across the world. He could see neither the start or end of the attack, it just was. And there in front of him, laughing at the sky was the holographic figure laughing towards the heavens.

"Amazing, truly stupendously amazing" It threw its arms skywards as if praying towards the destruction in front of it, "Sasuke you are amazing, all are dead but you still live. You truly are the god among men"

"What have you done you Mad man!"

"Done? I have cleansed!"

"I have wiped clean this world from the filth that populated it, the rundown cities, the cesspits of filth, all but my chosen people kept safe by our barriers of protection."

"We are the chosen survivors of earth!"

Sasuke activated the Rinnegan for the first time this battle allowing himself to see the truth of his situation"

His army was gone. Not dead, not defeated, but gone. The winds had disintegrated them all, even now it tore upon the layers of his protection which he constantly renewed.

He watched with haunted wander as it left all else alive, trees, grass, animals, all were safe from the chakra that roared past them, though it did sweep them off their feet. Yes it was only human chakra was affected.

Sasuke took a moment to comprehend that realisation.

In horror he looked towards the barriers surrounding the village to see it was already too late. They were seconds from breaking.

"Nooo!" He screamed surging forwards in an attempt to do something anything to protect what could soon be the last humans on earth.

Sasuke hated them, he wanted them dead, to tear them apart with his own hands. But even his deep hunger for avenge was taken over by the instinctive need to protect one's own species from extinction.

"The towering figure laughed at what it thought was Sasuke's final attempt at revenge. "Oh Sasuke" It derided, contempt dripping from every syllable, "In the end even the great must break, truly a shame, you will be remembered"

Ignoring it all Sasuke broke down his Susanoo taking the Chakra of its creation and stretching, creating a wide dome of chakra he forced it out in all directions around him, forming a barrier between the attacking force and the village at his back.

"What are you doing Sasuke, the source of the attack isn't here, you can't block it off"

Sasuke screamed in effort pulling the last of his chakra from his exhausted body that just wanted to collapse and die where it stood.

"Commander!" Another voice broke through the speakers, "Commander the barriers! There breaking down their ah-". Silence. The voice spoke no more"

The hologram was frozen, its eyes wide in comprehension as it watched Sasuke scream and convulse below it, the purple barrier rippling and fading as it was continuously plugged by fresh chakra.

"Halt the Attack!" It screamed, panicked rushing viewable in the background, as ninja panicked at the new development.

Sasuke gasped, throat to raw too scream any more, no energy to even open his eyes, not much longer now, he told himself, they'll stop the attack soon.

A minute passed.

Sasuke's reserves passed too.

The barrier dropped.

Sasuke died for the 3rd time.

This was the most painful one he decided in his final moments, his unnatural strength giving him more time than others.

Enough time to feel the barrier around Spring break in a shattering of tiny splinters of light.

Time to feel as one by one the chakra signature inside were extinguished like candles, snuffing out the last of the human race one by one.

Till only Sasuke remained. The last. The survivor.

Sasuke's defences broke, he was engulfed, and he fell.

And came back. Back into a tornado of angry chakra that devoured his newly revived soul as keenly as it had his last.

He died.

He resurrected, clawing out at the world in angry swipes of pure energy leaving great scars through the land and piercing dents into the village walls.

His lungs were shredded and he knew no more.

He stood screaming, that was all he did now. Screamed till his tongue was dissolved into dust, then continued in his mind till that too no longer existed.

His thoughts burned.

Too see was too open his eyes to death. Every living moment was agony. He never lived for long.

He couldn't count how many times he had died, revived, returned to this cursed world that would only cast him out once more.

For what was as age, centuries, years. Yet also just a minute or seconds. Sasuke lived and died, not moving from the metre of ground where his body rose and fell with the breath of his life.

After what could have been a second or a thousand years it finally stopped.

Sasuke fell face forward in the dirt.

He didn't move, Didn't know how.

Who, no what was he? Where was he? What had happened to him?

He blacked out.

He came too.

The sky was blue and bright above him. The birds sang a pleasant song and a gentle breeze wafted over him.

Who was he? He was Sasuke, he was alone.

He lay there, no reason to move, no reason to do anything. He lay there.

A month passed.

He felt hunger, he died for a drink. This was good, these were feelings, these proved he really lived.

The snow piled on him. The cold was another pleasant thought, it bit deep turning his very thoughts slow and slushy.

It melted with bright sunlight. His skin darkened, his shallow cheeks sunk in, his feeble, brittle arms hung loosely by his side. He could not stand if he wanted at this point.

Not that he did.

Sasuke never wanted to do anything again.

He died in his sleep. Even chakra can not fuel a human that long.

He felt different that morning, he had strength once more. This made no difference, he lay there.

.

.

The spike in chakra that tore reality in two was enough to make him sit up.

Chakra? Humans? A survivor?

He rose to his feet, sprinting towards the source of enough to chakra to break the universe asunder.

Landing in the nondescript clearing, lightning still coursing through his body, he watched as a patch of air rippled, and tore.

Space tire with a skreiking crack that burst his ear drums with its inhuman sound.

A gap no taller than Sasuke himself unraveled from the edges, a black backdrop of nothing within the air.

Naruto fell from the split, which snapped shut the second he was through.

Sasuke stared unresponsive. Blood trickled from his ears as he took in the sight of his friend he had long thought dead.

Naruto spasmed and with great effort lifted his face from the ground, seeing Sasuke form the first time.

"Sasuke" Sasuke read from the lips of his friend, his whiskered face grimacing in pain.

"There gone, the biju are dead, I'm alone"

He fainted, the last of his consciousness leaving him.

Sasuke said nothing.

Naruto was wrong, he was not alone, he had Sasuke. Sasuke had Naruto! He was not alone!

He started laughing. Unable to hear himself but not even caring Sasuke's laugh rose and became a maniacal bout of hysteria that rose in volume till it could be heard from miles away.

But no one heard. There was no one to hear, just a lone ball of earth.

And the last two humans on Earth.

 **Wow that turned out longer than expected. Welcome to my story, as you can tell this and the next couple of chapters are set up and storyplotting and i have them all planned out and half written. I will be trying to stick to a weekly saturday release so watch out for that and please follow along.**

 **If anyone would like to beta please ask! As you have probably seen my writing is quite rushed as i do most of it at work...**

 **Fairy tail elements are coming next chapter so be patient, as you can probably guess the fairy tail world is the distant future of this fic, how did that happen? read to find out.**

 **Until next time! Bye!**


	2. Living This Life

Intro

Flashback

 _Naruto slept for a week straight, Sasuke sat, unable to bring himself to move from his friend, his only companions side. When he did wake, he woke screaming. For a full day he cried and screamed unintelligibly, Sasuke stayed by his side, made him eat, forced water down his throat._

 _The second day he was silent. For the whole morning the two sat, staring across the canopy from the tree they sat in. Until finally Naruto spoke._

" _How long was i gone?" "It's been less than a month"_

" _I see. So time was different. I'm not sure how long it was for me. I lost track after 100 years"_

" _Naruto, what happened? Where are the biju?"_

 _For awhile he didn't reply, as if the very act of thinking about it hurt._

" _We didn't have enough power to escape, as seperate beings that is. So we merged. One by one i took their powers from them, starting at Ichi and working up._

 _We got to Kyu, and i couldn't do it, wouldn't. So he got mad. Told me their sacrifice was in vain if i stopped now"_

" _So did you do it?"_

" _I'm here aren't I"_

Sasuke came back to reality with a gasp, sitting up in bed wrenching pants made his whole body convulse and shake with every breath in. He looked around his surroundings, some nondescript inn at some forgettable town, in the country of who cares.

What was he doing again?

Oh yes. That was it, the rapist.

The last town he'd been in had been in the process of rebuilding after a mage had torn though the place, stealing away two young girls and raping them, Sasuke had told them he would take care of it. He told himself it was for justice. That he was helping. Really he was just bored.

With a sigh he rose from his bed, throwing the covers to some corner of the room he stepped in front of the mirror, his 16 year old face stared back at him, good, that meant he didn't need to bother with shaving for another 3 years, he was a late bloomer in that at least. Giving his face a quick splash of water he left the room, picking up his small bag from the floor by the door where he'd dropped it the night before. Downstairs he gave a nod to the innkeeper, dropping the room key on the desk and walked straight out the door without a word, he had nothing to say.

The village was barely worth mentioning, a couple of houses, the Inn and a small corner shop, his questions at the bar last night had born fruit at least, he set out west as directed the night before off of the description of a creepy guy a pretty young farmers daughter had seen. The info had been worth putting up with an hour of her inane small talk and terrible attempts at flirting, he really did hate being young, 40+ that was the real age, people would respect you at 40.

He liked this country though, wherever it was, the people were friendly and there was less crime and poverty than usual, instead everyone seemed happy and open to greet a complete stranger like an everyday acquaintance. He'd spent the past life up north, after a fairly interesting youth hunting across the snowpack of the northern ice caps he'd gotten into mountain climbing, using no chakra just his hands and ice axes he'd spent his time summiting the highest peaks of the region. Eventually he'd gotten bored and just sat at the peak of the highest point in the region, frightening the life out of any that got to the top, just standing and staring, letting his red eyes do all the talking. In the end the cold had gotten to him, it took a while for his chakra network to shut down, but once it did he was practically mortal again, frostbite was a painful way to go, he'd decided. After that it was time for something new, so he descended down from his refuge and set out across the sea, hitting land under the cover of night and starting a new life once more.

This job was his favourite, traveling vagabond, just wander around bringing criminals to justice, eventually he'd probably end up pissing off the government or some local royalty, and then the real fun would begin.

Well he thought, setting off at a stroll down the path, let's see what you've got for me this time.

Page Break

Mages, Sasuke decided as he stared at the two identical trails leading down to opposite paths, were annoying. Magic was such an insane power system that at times just made no sense whatsoever, although he considered wistfully, maybe that's what he should have expected form a powersource made from radiated natural chakra and Naruto's full biju powered influence. Humans these days had really improved their way of life all things told. Magic was to most an everyday object, used to power cars and radios, only Mages would use it to fight and they were a vast minority to the everyday folk.

Sasuke had high hopes for this new version of humanity, there had been wars and conflicts in the past, no doubt, but his time, in this civilisation, he hoped they could go all the way to peace. At least that's what he told himself he thought, he tried desperately to ignore the whispers in the back of his head that said a nice little war would make things interesting around here again.

Getting back to the matter of hand he inspected the tracks before him, both being exactly identical, the trails of Etherno was identical to. An even split had occurred right where he stood and two bodies had seemingly split emerged from the same spot where there had once been one. An advanced clone technique, obviously, but which was the real one? He could of course create his own clone and follow both, but that would mean using a technique against his profile.

Sasuke had long decided to limit the techniques he could use in a certain life. This had two main benefits, firstly it made him seem more normal and allowed him to integrate into society easier and secondly, and maybe more importantly, it made the fights somewhat closer to a challenge. Witht the abilities he had chosen for this life he was limited to about upper S-rank in terms of local mages, not that he had fought one that strong yet, but he would. If there was one thing he had learned over his lifetime it was that there was no escaping whatever conflict existed within the world, somehow he would always get sucked in. One way or another.

Making his decision he set of down the left hand path, for no particular reason other than guess work, he hoped to find his victim soon, he was growing bored of this pursuit.

The tracks lead him down the forest path, it was a pleasant outing all in all, a nice warm day, no wind, and with his target still at least an hour or two away. Sasuke remained at a steady stroll as he walked along, he felt no rush, after all he had all the time in the world. This was the first step in sustaining long life, he had decided, take the time to enjoy the little things, there was really no point rushing around like any moment could be the last, it just wasn't true after all.

His steady pace took him out of the forest, the path following a stream it had met down into farmland, fields on both sides were filled with growing produce and the men labouring in the field, one looked up to see Sasuke, greeting him with a cheery wave.

"Good tidings traveller" He greeted jovally, "Fancy a quick rest, my wife is all set up in the farm just down the track, fresh tea and the best cakes in Fiore"

"Some tea would be welcome" Sasuke replied, "But i must continue on, have you seen any others down this road?"

"Ehh, just the one i think" the farmer seemed slightly puzzled by this change in conversation, "Passed through not an hour ago, scrawny looking fella, wore a weird hat with a scarf around his face, not the sort of clothes i'd be wearing this time of year that's for sure.

"I see, you have been most helpful, my thanks" Sasuke set off again, no faster no slower, he was getting close.

It was another two hours before Sasuke felt it, a presence on the edge of his senses more powerful than any other he had felt today. With a grim smile Sasuke finally started to move in earnest, picking up speed till he was more of a bullet, crossing the distance between him and his prey in leaping bounds at speeds faster than any other could handel. He was less than a mile away when he was finally sensed, his target suddenly flinching as he felt the shiver of intuition gained by any who have fought for their life before. Managing to turn just in time to sense the oncoming attack he dodged and rolled, avoiding the swipe that would have taken his head clean off.

Sasuke landed, skidding across the dirt, coming to a stop in a crouch. He rose up to stand tall above his foe, a sickly looking man, loose baggy clothing covering a pale frame that seemed almost deathly skinny. He did not say a word, there was no need to, the man knew what he had done and why he was being pursued.

His opponent drew a dagger from within his baggy coat, a gruesome blade, made of edged spikes and hooks that would cause more damage on the way out than in. With a snarl the man dived towards Sasuke, letting loose with a wide arced sweep, following up with three quick thrusts after the preliminary attack was dodged.

Sasuke danced between the strikes, onyx eyes carefully reading each movement and picking the path between them with grace and poise. The next swipe left his opponent over extended and Sasuke punished him severely with a kick to the guts.

The man wretched, bent forwards and breathing hard from the impact he had not time to dodge as Sasuke's follow up punch impacted squarely with his head. Knocked back into a tree the man gave a pitiful grown and slid down the tree trunk coming to rest at the bottom, groaning in pain as he held his head between his hands.

Sasuke relaxed back into his stance, that fight had been far too easy, not even enough to raise his pulse, sighing he moved towards the pathetic creature before him, ready to put him out of his misery once and for all. But stopped.

Turning, he frowned at the new presence he felt rushing towards his position at a considerable pace.

He waited for it to arrive, his suspicions confirmed when the man burst onto the scene. An exact replica of the man lying on the floor behind him, a clone. He watched as the man eyed Sasuke warily, moving closer and closer to his fallen double. Smirking Sasuke stepped aside, giving free passage to the fallen man. The clone eyed him closely, dashing to the side of the fallen man, eyes fixed on Sasuke, expecting an attack at any time.

Sasuke simply watched in interest as the clone reached for his double, Etherno gleaming as their skin made contact and the two began to glow and merge. The new figure rose from his crouch. His new body was far more defined, muscle clearly visible as his now tight clothing strained as it stretched with the flex of muscle as the man stretched out.

"Hahaha, you fool! You should not have let me done that! Now feel the full might of Asbado the feared mage of Serpents tongue!"

The man moved forwards at speed faster that any he had used before, fist cocked back, ready to deliver a devastating punch. Which Sasuke dodged with ease, swaying to the left. Only to stagger as another fist came out of nowhere, hitting him clean in the cheek.

He flinched from the impact and looked Asbado with new found interest. That had not been a normal attack. Letting the man rush him again, he watched closely as he dodged a kick, noticing with interest as the leg cleared it s arc, revealing the other leg hidden in the shadow of the first, somehow forming right from behind the other in away that almost seemed an after image of the first. Now wise to the plan Sasuke was able to dodge this too, stepping back, out of range of both attacks, he let himself grin for the first time in the fight. Finally, something interesting.

The next time Sasuke was attacked he was ready, so instead of dodging he grabbed the fist extended towards him, pulling the other man in towards him. Now off balance Asbado had no chance to follow up his attack as he was pulled off his feet and thrown high into the air by Sasuke, reaching a decent height above the ground before gravity took hold once more sending him spiraling down towards the floor. Sasuke watched his fall intently, waiting for the exact moment to time his move, taking two steps forward he unleashed a punishing upwards kick. Making contact with Asbado's rear and launching him howling into a tree, the same tree as before, which he impacted again with a resounding smack. Knocking him out for the count once again.

Sasuke stood over his victim, the smallest of grins turning the corners of his mouth. That had been slightly interesting, not a common fighting style very different to the way Nar- Naru-, his friend, used clones. Shaking his head, he dismissed the depressing thoughts, focusing back on the unconscious criminal before him.

He had two choices. The man was a disgusting leech on society. Sasuke could forgive many crimes, but rape was one of the worst. He had decided, this man did not deserve justice. His course decided, he reached back to grab a kunai from his pouch.

This was when two feet impacted the small of his back, sending him tumbling forward. Tripping over Asbado's motionless from and sending him sprawling into the dirt.

"Hahaha, die you miserable piece of shit" An evil cackle was let loose by the teenage girl, around 15 or so, who now stood over him, her rather revealing leather outfit drawing his eyes slightly before they snapped back to the rather demonic smile on her face as she raised a clawed hand above his face. "Prepare for desolation, you sick fuck", she swung her arm forward, the act letting loose a shockwave of pressurised air that sailed towards Sasuke, who leapt high to dodge it, landing on a branch overhead.

"Gorilla Fist!" The branch was shattered by the muscled youth who leapt from the tree's behind Sasuke, who was already jumping away, landing down in the clearing once more, now surrounded on both sides by the two white haired opponents.

"Nice one Ne-chan" Cheered the final member of the group, a smaller girl with equally pure White hair as she watched from the sidelines, "Beat up that rapist so we can get this done by this evening"

"You seem to be making a mistake" Sasuke stated, arms held out slightly in a peaceful gesture.

"Oh?, i don't think so pervert. The only mistake here is the life choices you made, prepare to die Asbado!" She made to charge again, only to stop as Sasuke held a hand out, pointing down towards her feet.

For the first time she noticed what she was standing on was actually the unconscious body of a man in his late 20s.

"Aah!" Jumping away she landed next to her sister, "Who is that?"

"That would be Asbado" Sasuke responded dryly, "I had just finished beating him up when you decided to attack me from behind"

The girl paused, suddenly unsure on what to do, she looked towards her companions both returning her look with equally confused expressions.

"Asbado, member of the Serpent's Tongue guild, that would be the symbol on his arm there right?" He pointed at the arm splayed across Asbado's chest, the red shape of a snake's mouth stamped right below the wrist.

"Huh, perhaps your right" lowering her arms the elder girl relaxed from her fighting pose, "That still leaves one question, who are you? This is our mission!" She raised a scroll of paper from the bag over her shoulder, on it a rather bad drawing of Asbado stared out with a sinister smile.

"Ah, i'm not on a mission, i arrived in the village after he attacked. I offered to find him for them and they accepted, i didn't know they would send out a quest for it. My apologies, the bounty is yours, i care little for money"

The girl let out a sigh, lowering the paper again, behind the other two, that must be her iblings, seemed a lot happier. "Woohoo, nice one! Free money for us!" Cheered the boy.

"Baka!" his sister smacked him across the head, quickly ending his celebration as he clutched his head and wined in pain. "We're not accepting the money, what are we a bunch of cheapskates, have some damn morals!". She turned back towards Sasuke, "Alright then thanks for the help, we'll take him back to the village for you, or your welcome to come along if you want i guess"

Sasuke paused, he couldn't kill the scum now, not now these children wanted to return him. He had noticed the rather pure hearted views of the local mages, an honorable if naive view point. Making his decision he nodded. "Yes, I will return with you, pleased to meet you, my name is Sasuke"

"Lisanna" Rushing forward, eager to make new friends the smallest of the trio stepped forwards, hand held high level with her head to reach up to his chest. "Pleased to meet you, Sasuke-san"

"Im Elfman" The muscled boy grunted, "And this hellion is my sister Mira" He dodged the swipe from said girl, who had released whatever magic had taken her, her flowing hair now settled and her claws turning back into normal hands. "We're mages of Fairy Tail, the greatest guild in Fiore!"

Page Break

Sasuke chuckled as the two elder siblings continued to bicker, the girl teasing and poking the boy who cringed and retreated from her. Beside him the younger girl continued to question him as she had done for the past half hour. "So you don't belong to any guild Sasuke-san? Why? Your pretty strong right, not many could take a kick from my sister like that and not even seem hurt"

"I never put my full strength behind that!" Mira was quick to but in and defend herself, "If i had been trying you would probably be dying from internal bleeding right now"

"Mira!" Lisanna groaned, "Stop being embarrassing"

Sasuke inwardly smiled at the girls bold claim, he would like to see the day she could even make him bruise. "No i don't belong to a guild Lisanna, I prefer to just wander around by myself, i don't really have any specific goal in mind"

"Huh, how pathetic" Mira scoffed from infront "If you have no goal, you have no purpose in life, you may as well just die" She ignored the shocked chastisations from her sister looking over at the tall stranger, just catching the sudden look of emptiness and defeat in his eyes before his expression relaxed once more into vague indifference.

"I'm so sorry about my sister, unfortunately all her growth has gone to her muscles, she barely has the brain of an 8 year old"

Crash. Elfman's head impacted the dirt as Mira stalked off, muttering to herself about stupid brothers. Sasuke let out a short laugh at the young man's fate, shifting the tightly bound Asbado over to his other shoulder as he continued walking along.

They were an amusing group.

It took 2 hours to walk to the nearest major town, upon arrival Mira headed to the local enforcement to hand over their prisoner.

"What do you mean you can't take him!"

"I'm sorry!" The hapless guard cowered before the raging girl before him "We have no magical suppressors on hand, we have no way to contain him when he wakes"

"Well i don't want him" Mira yelled, and began prodding the guard in the chest "What should we do with him then? It will take ages to walk back to hargeon with him over our shoulders"

"I'm very sorry, please let me take you in my four-wheeler, i can drive you all to Hargeon, we can be there in 2 hours"

"Hmm fine, except one thing, i will drive. I have far more magic than you we can be there in an hour and you'll be fresh to get home by yourself"

"Ok right, thanks" The man tried to look thankful, even as the idea of turning his prised possession over to this young girl made him feel sick. It wasn't helped by the horrified looks on two of her companions. "Mira please don't drive, your always way too fast", "Yeah sis, why don't you just let Elfman drive"

"Shut up both of you! I'm a perfectly capable driver, I'll have us home for dinner, now get on" and with that she jumped into the driver's seat of the vehicle, glaring down at her siblings until they reluctantly climbed in the back. Sasuke heaved Asbado's body into the rear luggage area before jumping up after it, perching on a corner seat with his feet up on the mans face.

"You know, i've never been on one of these things before how fast are theeeyyyy" His final words streched and blurred as they took off like a rocket, Mira gunning the car for all it had grinning like a loon the entire time. Sasuke narrowly avoided falling out, grabbing the back of his seat just in time, he let out a surprised laugh as they raced down the road scattering carts and pedestrians in their wake, this was a fun way to travel, he needed to try this himself.

Page Break

It was Sasuke's belief that Chakra was a living thing, that it responded to will. If someone was a good person, as in truly saintful, then his good will would flow into all that he did until anyone in the vicinity would be subconsciously infected by his mood. As Sasuke stared up at the wooden guild hall, it's banners and flags fluttering happily in the light breeze, he was filled with a sense of intense happiness and wonder. This building was giving off the largest subconscious euphoria he had ever felt. How? Why? Was this guild truly as amazing as the three had been boasting for the entire trip?

"Are you coming Sasuke?" Snapped out of his reverie he looked down to see Mira at the entrance way waiting for him.

"Ah Sorry" He started towards her, shifting the still motionless body on his back.

"Thats fine, its good to see how impressed you are with our awesome guild! Just wait till you see inside though!" She ran in ahead of him, leaving him to speed up to try and keep up with her. He followed her through the doors, the background noise instantly picking up the second he arrived inside so that it was now more of a constant roar of conversation and laughter. Sasuke looked around, taking in the room full of happy members, drinking and chatting, at the front a bar was doing a roaring trade, the three serving girls rushing back and forth to keep up with the demanding drinkers. In one corner a bunch of kids were cheering as two in the centre attempted to punch the crap out of each other, on the sidelines Lisanna looked on in exasperation, in her arms a blue cat cheered as the pink haired fighter delivered a sharp uppercut to the jaws of his shirtless rival.

"Come on Sasuke" His arm was pulled away by Mira who had been waiting impatiently by his side. She dragged him forward to a table where a tall red headed man sat opposite a wrinkled old man, who lay passed out on the table, one hand still clutching a half full cup of ale.

"Oy Master, im back. We had to bring the bastard back here, there were no magical suppressing cuffs at the guard house, this is Sasuke by the way, he helped us take down the target"

"Pleasure to meet you" Sasuke bowed to the red headed man, who blinked and looked around.

"Eh, no, haha i'm not the master kid. He is" The man pulled the old drunk up by his ridiculous orange hat that somehow stayed attached to his head, "Oy, wake up you alcoholic" He dropped him again, letting the mans chin hit painfully into the table and waking up with a start.

"Huh, what's that now?" he sleepily replied, rubbing his eyes "Oh my head, why d'ya wake me up Gildarts?"

"Because you shouldn't be sleeping on the job you useless old man. Now were you listening or do i need to repeat myself"

"No no, i was listening" The old man shrank away from Mira who had stepped menacingly close to him, fist already raised. "Just stick him downstairs for now, he shouldn't be able to cause much trouble down there, his power wont let him break iron bars will it?"

Mira turned to Sasuke, unsure of the answer herself as they never actually fought him.

"No, he should be fine there, he's pretty weak"

"Well then, seems like theres no problems whatsoever! Now Mira introduce your new friend properly sit down and have a drink son, what's your poison"

"Master No! He can't be any older than me dont make hi-"

"Sake, if you have any please"

"Oh thats what i like to see" The master cheered as Mira turned angrily to Sasuke, "Oy Rene-chan bottle of Sasuke for our guest. You have good taste Sasuke my boy, oh here we go" He grabbed the bottle and saucers from the cute barmaid and poured them each a generous serving, "Hey Gildarts. Want in?"

"Hmm, nah i'll stick to my beer thanks, mixing drinks is for fools"

"Mah, what about you then Mira, oh" He trailed off as the girl had already turned her nose up and walked away, clearly miffed about being passed over for drinks. "Haha women, am i right Sasuke" the master laughed to his own joke, downing his saucer and quickly pouring himself another.

Sasuke grinned and nodded, slowly sipping from his own, it really was quite good liqueur. Now that no one was questioning him he had time to look around the room again. His eyes returned to the cat that had caught his interest earlier. Looking round to check no one was paying him any attention he risked a flash of Sharingan, activating it for less than a second, faster than the human eye could even see.

Within that half second the room lit up, his sharingan tracked chakra thanks to its rinnegan properties. All mages, most lifeforms carried his signature, well a mixture of his and Nar- Naru- , his friends, signature. All except one, at the back corner the kids continued playing, and Lisanna hugged the small blue cat. The cat which to his eyes was dead, it contained no life, it contained no Etherno.

No, considering the image saved to his brain again, he focused more on the core of the animal, around its heart a greyish energy moved, an energy he did not recognise and his sharingan didn't pick up.

An energy not of this world.

"Well Sasuke" The master was looking at him carefully now, as was his companion. For the briefest of seconds they had both felt something powerful, something sinister from the boy in front of them, though now he seemed the picture of grace once again. "What do you want to do now, you really helped out on that mission, your welcome to stick around for a bit"

"Yes" Sasuke agreed, his eyes upon the master, but his focus, all his thoughts were upon the new mystery in front of him. A mystery he would solve. "I think I'll stay for a few days or so, at the least. This place is, interesting"

"Well then" The master was smiling now and he stood on the table, sake cup in hand. "Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

 _Sasuke walked beneath the canopy of the forest. Pale rats of light flickering through the swaying branches above illuminated patches of ground below, creating pockets of shadow and light. He parted the swaying branches in front to enter the clearing ahead, to his left another entered from the east._

" _Nothing?" He questioned, voice scratchy and rough from disuse. His only reply was a shake of the head, Naruto looked despondent, the blonde unused to the silence in his head now his constant companions were gone._

" _Then that's it we truly are alone, Humanity is dead"_

" _Not yet" Naruto's voice was dead and toneless, none of the brightness he usually possessed present. His right arm was extended and within his hand he held what could only be a human heart, somehow beating and alive without the body to surround it. Naruto's eyes gleamed and the breeze picked up his long flowing hair to swirl round his head until he was wreathed in a blonde glow._

" _It's time to play god"_

 **And Chapter two done. Wow guys thanks for the response on that first one, really made me want to get this one out faster, but don't expect this normally, i'll usually be only once a week, we'll see if i get another one done this weekend. Probably not though, i've got a friends 21st birthday so we are going to get smashed. Lads Lads Lads.**

 **Responses to reviews,**

 **Yeah Sasuke's going to be acting a bit oddly, some noticed that he was acting strangely after his first resurrection, you'll notice he's getting weirder now, he has no real hold on his personality and his interests are all over the place. His moral compass is a goddam roulette wheel, you could say.**

 **Some also criticised the powers that could beat Naruto, do remember these are boasts from the guys who destroyed the world by accident, they didn't really know what they were doing, nevertheless there will be stuff in this series that is a threat to Sasuke, and throwing someone into an endless void is a proven technique for dealing with immortals.**

 **Also please point out any mistakes regarding fairy tail lore, my interest in fairy tail came and went fairly quickly and while i've read the whole manga i won't reread it just for this. Fairy tail was good but it wasn't great, same goes for Naruto tbh. I'm not sure if everyone realises this but i think the reason Naruto has the most fanfics is because it's got the best world for extending yourself.**

 **Here me out here, the Naruto world is both strictly defined, e.g villages, leaders, power levels, a heavy lore, backstory for every village back to the times of the first kage and before. Meaning fanfic writers don't need to come up with it themselves, but is also free as there's still all the little countries and secret societies to allow shenanigans, plus we now know the motivations for most characters, a very important thing when changing the plot of a story.**

 **Compare this to say One Piece, OP has fantastic world building, BUT is so unknown, there's a million different loose plot threads in OP, heck we still dont know the main villain or what the hell will of D is, and we have next to no idea how it all connects making any au or any story which does not strictly follow the manga quite hard or makes it very creative.**

 **Compare again to Naruto, im going to use example Black Cloaks red clouds, Fantastic fic, one of my faves, a very small change is made early in the timeline, but because we know the show so well we can predict the exact changes that will happen because of this so that when it gets to cannon time it has diverged so much you cant even recognise it as the same show leading to amazing storylines, btw i cried at the final Naruto scene in that fic, i had been rooting so hard for them to kill him only for dat plot twist.**

 **Ok sorry for the long rant i'm done, Fave and Review. What's your favourite large AU fic?**

 **Peace.**


	3. Unknown Consequences

_The young boy chased his friend across the grassy plain. Behind him the men of the tribe were busy erecting their shelters for the night, large tents of animal hide, stretched over strong wooden frames. The people were happy, the hunters had returned with a large catch, they would eat well tonight._

 _As the day turned to night the tribe sat around the fire and enjoyed their meal with gusto, pausing for songs and laughter as members of the hunt told long stories of their failures and successes. All were happy and content, the fire was warm the food was good and their gods were watching over them._

 _From the cliffside, hidden from the light of the fire two figures watched the celebration._

" _They are doing well, you were right to choose this location"_

" _Still, there progressing so slowly. 100 years and they haven't even made a language yet, they've not even discovered their chakra."_

 _The raven haired man turned to his companion._

" _So what do you want to do about it?"_

" _Hmm, it's time to go native"_

Sasuke ducked his head to the bowl of porridge in front of him, letting the airborne fish sail right through where his head should have been to meet the wall with a wet slap. Breakfast at the guild was chaotic to say the least, the food was good though, he thought as he took a long swig from the tall glass of refreshing juice infront of him. He had been staying at the guild for two days now, the first had been spent simply sitting in the hall and watching chaos unfold around him, although he had quickly learned his lesson from sitting in the middle, after finding himself in the middle of the third brawl he had picked himself up and moved to the outside edge. This was where he now found himself, sitting on a corner barstool enjoying a hearty breakfast.

Somehow he had found himself surrounded by others of his 'supposed' age group. To his right Mira was fighting with a red haired girl named Erza, it had taken him about an hour to realize that while the kids of the guild created around 60% of the fights, these two were responsible for the other 40%. On his left the masters grandson Laxus and his two friends Freed and Evergreen sat around pestering Cana, who seemed to want nothing more than to sleep if her position head down on the table was anything to go by. That or she wanted them to leave them alone, from what he gathered the trio was looking for a fourth member to join their Thunder Guard squad as Laxus was banned from taking S-class missions without a team despite having gained the rank the previous exams.

"-and of course i could beat you, you couldn't even beat Sasuke! With help!"

Looking back he started paying attention to the girls squabble for the first time after hearing his name mentioned.

"What! That doesn't mean anything, for one we only fought for like 5 seconds, that doesn't count, and we don't even know how strong he is, besides how do you even know about that?"

"Hmm" Erza swept a lock of her ruby hair behind her ear, "I overheard your siblings telling the other kids about it. Though i suppose that is a fair point. How strong are you Sasuke?" Finding the conversation turned on him for the first time he took a minute to consider his answer.

"I'm not really sure, i don't really have a base to compare myself too, how strong was that Asbado guy i beat up?"

"Hahaha, that guy barely counts" Laxus leaned over Sasuke's shoulder to join the conversation, "He was a high B-rank at absolute best, i think even Natsu could beat someone like that"

"Of course!" Dropping from the ceiling where he had been crawling along to attempt a sneak attack on Gray, but abandoning it for the more interesting event, "I could beat up guys like that every day of the week, bet i could beat you to" He was now but inches away from Sasuke and shaking with excitement, he raised his fist in the air, "Fight me! Come on Sasuke let's fight!"

"Aye, Fight him, it's always fun to see Natsu get beat" The funny blue cat rose from Natsu's shoulder. Only to leap in the air and sprout wings of all things as it dodged Natsu's strike.

Sasuke froze as it did, that was not Etherno. The cat, the random creature in front of him had just used Chakra! Yet it was not quite chakra either. There was something off about it, some quality that felt different to the energy he created himself.

What was this? It had been two days and he was no closer to figuring out the felines secrets. For a second he had considered just stealing the creature away to take its secrets by force. The very idea almost drove him to wretch, he couldn't do that, that was experimentation that was malicious that was go-. He calmed, took a breath. No thinking about that, not now.

The comotion around him continued, everyone laughing as Natsu and his cat continued squabbling with each other. Seeing Sasuke refocusing on him Natsu questioned him again, "So will you fight me Sasuke?"

"Sure, why not, it's always good to stretch after eating"

"Whaaa! Why you! Ok now i'm getting fired up. Your going down Sasuke!" Natsu ran outside, pausing briefly in the doorway to check Sasuke still followed. "Come on slow coach I still need to beat Gray after you, i'm on a schedule here"

"What was that you pink bastard!" The ice mage screamed from where he had been enjoying his breakfast shake in peace.

"Gray clothes" Muttered Cana, still fully asleep. She was still right, her comment sending the ice mage running into the back in embarrassment.

Sasuke followed the crowd of people heading out to see the fight. Pushing through the ring forming to stand in the centre across from Natsu who was already grinning and jumping about like a loon.

"Are you ready Sasuke? Cause here i come!"

Wasting no time Natsu sprinted towards the ravenette. Throwing a quick series of punches that Sasuke dodged, stepping to the side as Natsu's momentum taking him spinning past him. Natsu kicked out, bracing both hands on the floor to kick upwards at his taller opponent.

Sasuke grabbed the legs, taking Natsu for a spin before releasing him into the crowd of watchers.

Heh. That would do, he needed to see what power Natsu used, if it was the same as his cats or if he was just normal.

"Damn it!" Natsu screamed as he rose from the pile of bodies he lay in. "You've done it now teme. Fire Dragon's Roar"

Sasuke watched as the flames rushed his way, analysing, looking into the vary makeup of the attack approaching him. Fully satisfied with his result he sighed. Normal. Well it would have been too easy if it was just the owner affecting its pet.

Spinning away he let the fire rush past his side, feeling the heat despite the distance, that had been a strong attack for one his age.

"Not bad, why don't you try mine"

It had been a long time since he used this power set as his mage powers, it could be said his oldest power if not his strongest. There was no need for it but he couldn't stop himself from saying it.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu"

He let loose a light fireball, he didn't want to torch the kid after all. Natsu would dodge left, and he would grab him by the neck as he did. He was already moving into position when he noticed something strange, Natsu isn't moving. The pink boy was instead standing in the path of the coming flames and had started to inhale.

Natsu sucked the flames in with a cocky smirk at Sasuke. The crowd roared and cheered and Sasuke rushed towards Natsu as fast as possible, but it was too late.

Natsu began screaming.

 _Sasuke screamed as he rushed forward, driving his spear up into the flank of the large beast before him. Around him his fellow tribe members celebrated as the beast was brought low. Quickly they descended upon the kill butchering it with speed and efficiency, they would be eating well tonight!_

 _Packaging up their game, they began the long walk back to the camp. Sasuke joined in with their singing, feeling the new familiar feeling of companionship. He and Naruto had come from the great plains, spreading tales with the tribe about the great clan wars happening across them and how they had escaped to find a new home for themselves._

 _The tribe barely understood the concept of war, they only knew in passing that there were other humans. Still they accepted the pair into their ranks happily, Sasuke joined the huntsman enjoying the thrill of the hunt and teaching new techniques and abilities to his team. Naruto stayed behind in the village, showing them how to create from the resources around them, he also played doctor for the tribe. Even the small amount of first aid he remembered being far superior to the witchcraft the local shaman used._

 _In fact staying in the village seemed to be going very well for Naruto, Sasuke thought. He had picked himself up a whole host of fangirls, all enraptured by the smart strong man with such foreign looks. Naruto had picked one to be his personal assistant in the medical tent, but Sasuke was sure the girl Iida saw it as much more than that._

 _They were almost back at the village now and the huntsmen were joined in their song by the rest of the village who ran out to greet their return with songs of praise and celebration. Sasuke laughed and sang along as he deposited his load with the women by the fire, there would be a feast tonight! Turning to the old Mother of the tribe he asked where Naruto was, thanking her he headed off to the healers tent as instructed, eager to tell his friend about the progress he'd made with the hunters._

" _Oy Naruto, you in here?" He called from the entrance flap, unwilling to disturb the blonde if he was at work._

" _Sasuke? Yeah come on in"_

 _Sasuke stepped through into the tent, inside Naruto was clearing his bed. His clothes were stacked and left in a pile and all the trinkets and medical notes he had made were being packed into bags._

" _Naruto? What's happening, you look like your packing?"_

" _Yeah, I am. This experiment is a bust" Naruto pointed over his shoulder to the second inner door to his surgery area, "Go take a look, no chakra coils, inability to handle chakra within their bodies. This projects a failure we need to start again"_

 _Sasuke walked over to the cloth flap and slowly lifted it up._

 _On the other side was Naruto's workbench. Lying atop it was Iida, her chest was split down the middle, skin pulled back and clamped to the sides of the table revealing an open cavity where her ribs had each been individually removed. Where there should be the heart, the lungs, all the inner organs was instead a black and ashy mess and singed skin._

" _She had no chakra coils" Naruto's voice came from his shoulder but Sasuke didn't even jump at the sound, he was too shocked by what he was seeing._

" _And when i tried to introduce chakra to her system, poof, she went up in smoke. I think it's the new natural chakra, as soon as its introduced to internal chakra it starts to react again. And all these humans have the new natural chakra inside them, all living things do now."_

 _He sighed and walked back, picking his now packed bag from the floor. "Yeah we're gonna have to completely restart this whole thing, I'm going back to the lab, see you in a bit." He ducked out of the tent. Leaving Sasuke standing with the grotesque display that was once a human._

 _He had been concerned before, now he was sure. Naruto was going insane._

The back room of the guild was in chaos. Guild members frantically ran around trying to do whatever they could to help, the nurses on hand were desperately attempting to calm Natsu who was thrashing wildly on the bed as Gildarts held him in place and the master examined him.

Outside in the main hall the majority of the guild were in a silent state of shock. All except Erza who had just come from the medical bay and was now storming towards the bar where Sasuke sat.

"What the hell were you doing!" She shouted at him, grabbing him by the shoulder to make him turn and face her. "Natsu is in their with burns on the inside of his body. Have you not heard of a thing called holding back!"

Sasuke held her stare expression neither sad or angry as he calmly replied, "The attack i used was both weak and slow, it's hardly my fault that he tried to eat fire. He could have easily dodged that attack."

"Umm Sasuke, Natsu is a Dragon slayer, he can eat fire" Mira interrupted from the side, pulling Erza out of his face and giving him some breathing room. "But there's no way he could have known that Erza. We can't blame Sasuke for that, he was telling the truth, that attack was super slow, even Lisanna could have dodged it"

"Yeah which begs the question" Laxus interrupted, butting his way through the crowd now surrounding the argument. "What sort of magic was that? A type of fire a dragon can't stomach? Must be pretty strong, or pretty dark…"

Now the whole guild was watching him carefully, Erza looked on the verge of attacking him so she could beat the answers from him, and even Mira was watching him closely.

Sasuke sighed, he wasn't sure how he was going to talk his way out of this one.

"I'm not really sure what to tell, I've never fought a Dragon Slayer before so i have no idea why that happened. I learned my magic from my master. We lived and trained in isolation together and i've only just set out by myself, i've no idea what makes my magic different from normal flame mages" He said, lying through his teeth the entire time.

"Sasuke, Erza, Laxus. Come with me" The master had emerged from the medical room and was walking up towards his office. The named three quickly rose to follow him up the stairs to the upper level.

Makarov ushered them into his office, settling them into the seats around his desk as he sat down behind it. "We have managed to stabilise him", he held a hand out to silence the immediate interruption from Erza as he continued, "We have managed to keep him suspended at his current damage level and he shouldn't get any worse, Gray is helping to cool him from the inside and i've sent for Porlyusica to help. But" and now he turned to Sasuke, looking him dead in the eye with an unreadable expression on his face.

"As of now we can't heal him. I don't know what you did but your flames seem to be breaking down his body from the inside, its acting like no fire I've ever seen"

"That's because it's not fire" Sasuke interrupted, drawing a side look from Laxus and making Erza wheel to face him with rage once more. "I lied when i spoke downstairs. I'm sure you can agree its not wise to reveal the secret to a whole branch of magic to a room containing novices and children." The others nodded in agreement, even Erza conceded the point there.

"The truth is that i use latent elemental power. We all know that normal mages convert Etherno, we bring the toxic oversaturated Etherno in the air into our bodies in a slow process that neutralises the toxic elements and allows us to use it safely" Again all nods, "Well what is use is the pure Etherno" and now he was getting shocked looks.

"Let me explain. I have been cursed with extremely low reserves of magic, any normal school of magic would be impossible for me, what my masters school of discipline does is harness the natural power of Etherno in the atmosphere and bend it to our whims. This would normally have no worse effect on the enemy as the attacks created are of similar power, from what i can guess Natsu is hurting because he tried to digest raw Etherno, it's not the flames that are hurting him. It's the Etherno."

"Why didn't you say that earlier!" Erza screamed, "It's been almost 15 minutes since it happened!"

"You only just said he was a dragon slayer. I thought he was suffering the consequences of trying to eat fire. Which, would have caused the same wounds from how i saw it"

"Now now, settle down children" Makarov stretched a hand over to grab Erza before she could stand and continue the shouting. "Now that we know the cause i think i have a solution" turning around to his bookcase he scanned the shelves for a minute before choosing a large green tome. Opening it on the desk he turned towards the back pages, "Aha, here it is. Fosphora. This is a key component to a potion that soothes and neutralises Etherno poisoning. However it is only found here" he pointed to a map on his wall, finger hovering over a mountain range east of their current position. "Only here can we find the flower, but it's a dangerous unstable climate and the monsters that inhabit it are extremely strong, I'll need all three of you to go together on this. You'll need to work together to succeed."

"Heh please, i could easily solo this gramps. But dont worry i'll babysit the kiddies, Erza needs the S-rank experience after all"

"Yes master, I won't fail you. However i think we can do without Sasuke. He is an unknown to us and i feel he could hinder our team dynamic"

Laxus snorted, "What team dynamic. I've never worked with you either. If you don't want him along just say it, i hate people who shy away from confrontation"

"Fine! Your right, I don't want him along Master. I don't know him and i dont trust he was the one who hurt Natsu in the first place. I won't forgive someone who hurts my friends."

Makarov sighed as he watched Erza, on one hand he was so happy that the quiet little girl had grown to the point where she was fighting to protect her friends. If only she could be slightly more willing to accept people as those friends. "Now Erza. You must give Sasuke a chance. It's quite clear this whole thing is an accident, if anyone's its Natsu's fault for eating the fire in the first place this is probably not the first time a dragon slayers got himself in trouble eating something he shouldn't and it won't be the last. Now why don't you give Sasuke a chance to prove himself to you. I'll let you be in charge of him and if he doesn't follow the mission you have my full support in banning him from returning here seem fair?"

Sasuke had fully blanked out the argument around him. How dare they just assume he would want to rush to help the boy. And how dare that old man talk down to him, he had a good mind to walk away, destroying their precious building as he did. But. He finally had a lead on magic.

Despite all his time searching he had never figured out how N-, how chakra had merged with the new humans, there was one key element missing from his equation that he could not understand. But now he might have answers. The cat with a working internal chakra system, Dragon Slayers, a magic he had never considered before, how did this all work, he needed to know, and that meant staying in this Guild.

"Every minute we spend here arguing is another minute Natsu suffers" Sasuke finally spoke up, silencing the room, "If you truly care for you friend you'll stop wasting time, and come with me"

Laxus grinned as Sasuke walked out, leaping from his chair to follow him. This was an attitude he could get behind.

Erza hesitated for a split second only moving off once receiving a confirming nod from the master.

Sasuke smirked as he left the building with his team. Maybe this could be fun.

A gust tore its way down the icy gully, throwing spindrift and sleet into the air as it went, buffeting the three travellers making their way up the mountain. Sasuke lead the party, behind him Erza had requipped into a heavy winter coat but Laxus seemed to be making it on guts alone having only grabbed a thin jumper before heading out, he wasn't complaining to his credit. They had been searching for hours already but had seen not a glimpse of the elusive plant.

"Were too high up!" Laxus shouted. Just able to make himself heard through the wind. Nothing could survive up on the ridge, we need to find a more sheltered spot lower down"

Sasuke nodded, taking a branch left that would take them on a route behind a sharp edge where they could hopefully duck out of the wind.

It was then as they traversed this thin path around the edge of the Mountain that they were ambushed.

Large and hairy, that was all Sasuke could discern from the creatures that begin dive bombing them as they went along. The first few missed entirely, seemingly plummeting to their deaths as they fell right past them. Then they let their wings unfurl and swooped out of their fall to rise up and up again, ready to dive bomb once more.

His team were already responding. Laxus expelled with a roar, sending glowing streaks of lightning tearing through the sky hitting the creatures in the air and frying them as they hovered. Erza had summoned a massive war hammer and seemed to have began a game of baseball, hitting the falling ones as far as humanly possible, she let out a cheer as she managed to aim one straight into a peak on the other side of the valley, starting a small avalanche as the snow as unsettled from the summit.

Sasuke joined in, unwilling to be shown up by the others, letting loose a quick series of smaller fireballs, each one aimed precisely at one of the airborne does knocking them from the air letting them spiral to the ground, fur and wings burning and smoking.

Within five minutes the enemy had either fled or passed on, Sasuke shared a brief grin with Laxus who was looking far happier after the excuse to fight. "Now thats what im talking about!" The blonde grinned, "Nothing like a fight to keep you warm, they were a bit easy though. Let's look for something more dangerous"

"Idiot. We don't have time for your thrill seeking we need to get back as soon as possible" Erza had already started down the path, having taken the lead while the two boys enjoyed the fight. "Now look over there, i think there's a cavern there, it should be more sheltered there we may be able to find the plant"

Getting to the opening was easier said than done, the path they were on stopped abruptly forcing them to skid down a steep snow patch to a lower level. After that they were able to move swiftly through a rock field that took them directly to the entrance of the cave.

Inside they were finally free from the wind that had plagued them since entering the mountain range, the cavern had a small dusting of snow on the rocky floor, less and less the further from the entrance they went.

"There won't be any plants in here" muttered laxus "It's too dark for anything but mushrooms and moss"

"Keep going" Sasuke instructed "Its widening up ahead, let's see what it is before giving up"

It was the right call, turning the corner they were greeted by a beautiful sight. A large hall like room was filled with towering pillars of ice that dripped down from the ceiling creating an almost mirror like effect that lit up the whole room.

"There must be light from somewhere, find the source and we should find the perfect spot for a flower to grow"

They all spread out and after a few minutes searching Erza called out from the back of the room. "Found it!"

They all met around the wall of the room, higher up in the wall was a thin slitted crack to the outside where light shone through. Nestled in the back of the crack they could just see the leaves of a plant.

"Do you think that's it?" Laxus asked.

"Only one way to find out" Sasuke leapt up in the air. Plucking the flower with pinpoint precision as he drew level with it, leaving its roots and leaves fully undisturbed. "Got it!" he celebrated as he fell back to the ground.

"Nice one, let's get out of this shithole before we freeze to death" Erza nodded in agreement with Laxus and the trio set off out the cave ready to hustle it back to Fairy Tail as quickly as possible.

They were greeted back with cheers as they sprinted through the doors. Ignoring the crowd they headed straight into the back room where they were greeted by a pink haired women sitting over a large pot of thick greenish liquid that bubbled as it cooked over a fire..

"The flower. Now." She demanded, Erza quickly handed it over and it was tossed into the pot almost straight away, "You arrived just in time, I had just finished the preliminary stages if you had been more than another hour it would have spoilt the whole batch."

Sasuke watched as the women continued to tend to her pot. It was strange, either she had the best control he had ever seen or she did not contain any Etherno atall. She was like a null space. Even the air held Etherno, it had presence, she was like a void spot in space. For a second he fought the urge to reach out and touch her, to see if she really existed. Heh. This place was getting more interesting by the second.

He watched as the medic spooned the concoction down Natsu's throat. The boy shivered before finally relaxing into the bed, steam poured from his mouth as the potion neutralised the radioactive elements inside his body.

"He'll be just fine. Give him more potion twice a day, morning and night. Goodbye, don't bother me again." Porlyusica swept from the room the second she was done, "Oh and tell the old coot this is the last freebee, next time i'll start charging him."

She left through the back door, just as Makarov burst in from the main hall. "Your back! Did you get it?"

"Yes Master. The potions already been administered to him, he should be fine."

"Well that's a relief" The diminutive man sunk into a chair by the bed "You kids are going to kill me with all this stress one day"

"Right well if that's that, i have a team to form. So long gramps, see you around Sasuke." Laxus left the room, leaving just Sasuke and Erza with the Master and a now lightly snoring Natsu.

"So Erza, I see Sasuke is back with us. No complaints from you?"

"No, he performed adequately for the mission i suppose. It was far too easy to get a real read on him though. But, for now i will withhold my judgment. You have the chance to earn my friendship" and she too left, leaving Sasuke alone with the Master.

"Well, all's well that ends well, wouldn't you say Sasuke? You handled all this quite well for a boy your age, not many would have the calm and composure you have, why you barely seemed troubled by any of it"

He hadn't been, he cared little if Natsu lived or died. But he wouldn't say that of course. "I was happy to help. I felt slightly guilty about it all, it was at least partially my fault."

"Hmm, your off on your own Mira tells me, just travelling the world after training with your master? You might want to find a place to rest now and again, it can be tiring living on the road your whole life." He jumped up onto the chair so that he could be level with Sasuke "How about it Lad? Continue wandering as much as you like, take missions, travel the world but at any time you can come back to a home. At Fairy Tail all are family. We treat each other with respect and kindness and expect it back in return. So what do you say? Will you join our family?"

Sasuke regarded the hand stretched out to him with interest. Join the guild? Well if it continued like this who knows how many clues would pop up here, it would be good to stick as close as possible, it would make observation so much easier. Plus the bar was pretty good, and it's not like he had anything better to do.

Sasuke reached for the hand and grasped it. Makarov smiled and pulled a stamp from behind his back, "where do you want it?"

Sasuke thought for a second before holding his left forearm up to receive the black stamp.

His left arm, the one he had lost all those years ago.

The one he wouldn't hesitate to get rid of again.

 _It had been 30 years since Naruto left the tribe. Sasuke had burned Iidas body as quickly as possible, the thought of it still made him sick sometimes. He had managed to convince the tribe that the pair had run off to elope together and would probably return soon, apart from Iidas father who had never been a fan of Naruto, the rest of the tribe took it in stride with a few jokes about young love and some jealousy from the other young girls of the village._

 _However as days turned to months and soon a year the tribe was convinced something had happened. Fortunately they simply decided the pair must have died to an animal attack or some other natural calamity._

 _And so Sasuke remained within the tribe, with his help he was able to teach them efficient techniques to create an easy life for themselves. Soon the tribe stopped their wandering, setting up permanent homes where Sasuke taught them to farm. After some time the chief passed away at the relatively old age of 55, in a unanimous choice Sasuke was chosen to lead the tribe. Under Sasuke's rule the tribe continued to prosper in all ways and before long a large settlement of over 300 people had sprung up in their grassy valley, Sasuke was approaching 50 but was still in the peak of his life to the astounding of his people, who tried to take as much responsibility from him as possible to keep him in good health._

 _Sasuke had taken up some hobbies to occupy his time now that leadership had been taken from him. Currently he was fishing. A wide river meandered between the rolling hills lower down the valley and this was where Sasuke could be found most days. Today was no exception._

 _Sasuke lay in the bed of soft grass, a wide hat perched over his head as he lightly dozed with a fishing rod held in place by one leg. The sun was shining and the sky was clear of all but the thinnest of white clouds that hung stationary in the calm sky, this was the life._

 _Sasuke was jolted from his peaceful slumber by a feeling he had not felt in a long time. He sensed chakra._

 _No. Not Chakra, it was similar, but different on a fundamental level. More importantly, it was coming from the village._

 _For the first time in over 20 years Sasuke unleashed his power, chakra coursed through his body as he sprang from his resting spot, with leaping bounds he covered the ground before him at an intense pace that set a jet stream in his wake._

 _Cresting the hill he got his first glimpse of the village. It was under attack! Men fought. Women and children fled. Buildings were being destroyed. But Sasuke barely noticed any of it, he was too transfixed by how the attackers fought._

 _Gushing flames, piercing winds, one man levitating objects and people alike. All of them radiating a power Sasuke had never felt before. It was like the warped natural chakra that remained to this day, but it wasn't, it felt cleaner, safer yet still wild and free. He spent too long staring and watching before a wailing scream broke him from his trance._

 _Shaking his head he continued his sprint down, he could figure these powers out later, after he had saved his people._

 _Sasuke had not fought with chakra for 20 years. He did not need it now. With spear and dagger, fist and foot, he butchered the entire attack party single handedly. Their strange attacks, their unnatural abilities it all fell flat before his might._

 _In just 10 minutes they were all dead. All but one who Sasuke had pinned down by the neck as he questioned him. "Who are you people? where did you come? What is this power?"_

 _The man spat blood in his face and laughed cruelly. "We are just the beginning weakling. All will die under our might we are the chosen of the god! Our power is mighty as our god intended! We are magicians! All will cower before us!"_

" _Maybe, but you won't be around to see it" He slit the mans throat and stood to face his people who had returned and were now gathered round him._

 _For the first time Sasuke didn't know what to tell them. Naruto had succeeded, these attackers were the next stage of humanity, and his people were no longer top of the food chain._

 **And another chapter done, man i'm on a role, lets see how long this lasts not sure how long i can continue spending half my time at work writing fanfics.**

 **I kinda struggled on this chapter, completely forgot Porlyusica was from Edolas until i googled her name to check how it was spelt. This meant i had to completely redo a huge section of my plan to fit this in, did help me figure out how i will do the Edolas arc though which has actually lead to me having planned out the end game and stuff too.**

 **Which brings me to my next note, i had a couple of PM's on power levels and the like so i'll put this down here. Technically Sasuke can beat pretty much anyone in the Fairy tail cannon, in this AU he is technically god, not much people can do about that. This brings us to a point which plagues writers forever, how to make an immortal/unbeatable character interesting? There are many ways to do this, Shinobi of the high seas puts all its suspense into supporting fights until it reaches a point where the protag is challenged, others such as One punch man go for comedy. I'm choosing to go for mystery and phycology, Sasuke will spend the majority of this fic searching for answers, there will be fights in this fic and he will struggle(to win without revealing his power) but all suspense will come from other characters and Sasuke's journey for answers and his healing psych.**

 **Right now Sasuke is a fun little ball of personality tropes. You can see he switches from fun and easy going too serious to not giving a fuck at any point, safe to say he's fairly messed up. He also does not give a single shit about his guild mates, right now, this is also true in Naruto canon for the most part. Sasuke takes a while to warm up to and trust people and treats any he doesn't care about as little more than fodder, he still has that character trait in this story.**

 **Thanks to everyone who reviewed including my first flame! If everyone who doesn't like my story could flame me that would actually be really helpful.**

 **I will answer a few questions now:**

 **Petem903: Sorry man you'll just have to wait for those answers as they will be the driving force of the fic, hope this gave you some answers though, as to Naruto, mwahahah you'll just have to wait, not sure you'll like the results but you managed to inspire a paticurlaly evil idea in my head**

 **BlankDead: Sasuke revives and heals all his wounds, including his hands so yeah two hands**

 **Hades The Scribe: Oh shit, i may have forgotten to right that bit, it was meant to be right in the second part of the first chap, oops. Basically naruto merged with all the biju over the years as their current jinchuriki died to seal them in a mindscape world he created for them. Then they all sacrifice themselves to give him enough power to burst through the void dimension.**

 **That's all for now, keep them reviews coming there how i feed myself.**


	4. Chance of Glory

_Sasuke left the tribe in his 21st year as chief. He had been preparing for this, using illusions to make himself appear older and older till he left a clone, dead of natural causes, in his stead and left for good. He had enjoyed his time with them, his people, but he no longer had the time to sit about relaxing, things were happening that he did not understand and he needed answers._

 _He looked back at his peaceful village one last time, its new hidden spot would hopefully keep it safe for as long as possible, he had relocated them all to a dark forest, then behind the strongest illusion he could craft he had hidden the village and a wide area round it._

 _They should be safe, he prayed they would be safe. But he had no time to worry for them anymore._

 _He had a blonde to trackdown._

"Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!" The crowd chanted his name cheering on their champion who was struggling in this epic clash of wills.

"Cana! Cana! Cana! Wooo!" The other half celebrated as with a last large gulp Cana finished off her barrel raising it above her head to show not a drop was left to come. Finishing but seconds after Sasuke groaned and sank to the table head in hands, he just lost drinking contest with a 16 year old.

"Haha yeah, take that Sasuke!" The red faced girl was busy gloating, after turning 16 the month previous she had taken to alcohol like Erza to cheesecake. No one was quite sure how a tiny girl was handling all the alcohol without dying of blood poisoning but the bets for how long her liver would hold out had already started.

Sasuke had been at the guild 8 months now and had settled into a routine. Wake up go to the guild and hang around until a mission caught his fancy or he was sucked into one of the endless brawls. As far as routines went it was easy, fun and different almost every day, the perfect combination for him. The missions so far had been far too easy but the Mater was still not allowing him to take S-ranks until he had officially joined the rank, something laxus had made sure to remind him of every time he saw him.

As far as friends went Laxus was one of his closer ones, after the blonde had returned from his first S-rank mission with a new tag along Bixlow the newly minted Thunder God Tribe had began to tackle a chunk of harder and harder missions as if they were in some sort of competition. When he was back at the guild his brash competitive nature made him easy to get along with, Laxus liked a fight and a drink, but also had very little tolerance for weakness in either, luckily for Sasuke he struggled in neither and could spend comfortable hours in the blondes company drinking in almost silence.

On the other end of the spectrum completely Mira and Cana had both recently started partying hard, they had taken to dragging anyone they could get on to nights out that left the guild completely to find more active night spots in the city. Fortunately for him, Sasuke had managed to avoid most of these, he barely understood this whole clubbing thing, the music they played was little better than noise to him.

But now as Sasuke retreated from the cheering crowd he sat by one of the newer members of the guild. Levy had only recently joined the guild and remained slightly shy and in awe of the whole spectacle of it. Sasuke enjoyed her company for the most part, she was far more clever than many others and he was able to have in depth discussions with her about the nature of Etherno and the mysteries of the source of magic. This made recruiting her as an unwitting spy very easy as she treated it as her own personal investigation.

Levy had not yet noticed he had sat down across from her, too engrossed in her book, allowing Sasuke to relax into his chair, he'd had enough fun for one morning.

Slam. Obviously the universe did not agree with him. The Second floor door opened to reveal the master of Fairy Tail, who jumped up onto the balcony rails to address the guild. "Alright alright listen up you lot i have an announcement to make. The S-class exams will be next month, and i have chosen the participants." The guild was deathly silent everyone was sat forward in their seats hanging on the masters words.

"Ahem, the chosen six who will participate in this years S-class exams are, Erza, Mira, Cana, Macao, Freed and Sasuke. Each of you must choose a partner to accompany you, you may not choose an S-class as your partner. That is all" and he jumped down again, disappearing back behind his doors which slammed behind him leaving the guild in turmoil as discussion and betting began to take place.

Sasuke blanched as a crowd formed around him, asking who he would choose to be his partner, offering themselves for the service or simply asking him how well he would do. Looking around it seemed everyone was getting the same treatment, Mira had quickly chosen Elfman as her second an obvious choice given how often they worked together. Macao and Wakaba were chinking tankards together to cement another obvious pairing. Freed seemed to be sizing up Bixlow and Evergreen, choosing Bixlow if the man's cheers were anything to go by.

This left Sasuke Erza and Cana as the last free members and they were each receiving a veritable hoard of applicants. Sasuke observed his hopefuls, there was really no point to taking any of them, it wasn't like any of the current S-class would trouble him and the other competitors didn't even feature on his threat list, the only way Sasuke might be troubled would be a test that required more than brute strength. Well that made the decision easy.

"Hey Levy, fancy a holiday?"

"Me?" Levy looked shocked to have been spoken to and was shrinking away from the glares and shouts of disbelief from the crowd around her, "But Sasuke i'm weak there's no way i could be any help"

"You think any of this lot can?" Sasuke questioned, dismissing the rest with an absent wave of his hand "I'm confident about taking anyone in this guild in a fight, meaning the only help i'll need is in the brains departement, and in that there's no better choice than you"

Levy blushed from the praise. Failing to meet Sasuke's eyes completely she stared at her toes and considered her options. Yes Sasuke was supposedly super strong, completing most missions without even using magic and competing could be interesting she would get to see the Fairy Tail Holygrounds! That decided it.

"Okay, Let's do it!" Eyes blazing with the chance of new knowledge Levy stood upon her chair with a fist raised skyward. "S-Class here we come!" Sasuke chuckled at her abrupt mood swing.

Across the room Cana and Erza were still making their decision. They had both thinned the heard of potential partners and had been left with a shortlist of the best. Namely, Natsu, Gray, Max and Warrod. For Cana Warrod was straight out, she was more of a support style herself and needed a more frontline guy to tank some blows for her, however it would have to be someone smart enough to follow her plans which kicked Natsu straight out.

"Gray, lets do this" Gray had a wide range of abilities with his Ice-make including the ability to shield and protect her as she set up her own attacks making the decision fairly easy.

"Natsu you will not disappoint me" Erza had simply decided that Natsu would make a convenient distraction that would at least annoy anyone else they came across, that and he would never give up and his tracking abilities.

"Allright, S-Class here i come!" Natsu cheered. Gray merely smirked as he casually removed is top.

I regret this already, Thought both female mages as they watched their partner strip or dance around shouting respectively.

Sasuke watched as the last partners were chosen. Now the roster was complete. Not that he was particularly worried about any of his competitors, there would only be one victor from this exam, Him.

"Faster" Sasuke shouted as he sent a trio of fireballs hurtling across the field to nip at the heels of Levy who screamed as she picked up her pace, almost sprinting across the field, jumping barrels, ducking trip wires and avoiding the many projectiles Sasuke threw her way.

"Is it too late to give up!" She cried for the 4th time that day, receiving no response as usual as Sasuke sent a larger fire ball towards her. She squeaked as she threw herself to the ground to dodge it, letting it sail over head singing the tips of her hair as it skimmed over her. She lay there panting even as Sasuke called for her to get up and move again, this time she was done, could not have moved if she wanted too.

"Well that was an improvement at least" Sasuke strolled over to offer her a hand up which she gladly accepted. "That's almost an hour longer than last week, by the start of the exam we should be able to double it again"

Levy groaned at that, the thought of even another minute of this torture was enough to make her want to crawl into her bed and stay there till this whole exam was over. Immediately after choosing her as his partner Sasuke had began constructing a grueling training regime to get her up to his high standard before the exam started. While it was working, and she could see the visible improvement to both her stamina and strength already, she had never cared overly for the physical side of magic and was not enjoying the experience.

"Come on" Sasuke said as he pulled Levy to her feet, "Lets go have some lunch, then we can focus on some book work for the afternoon, i have an idea on how to increase the power of your word chains" he set off towards the guild leaving Levy to slowly shuffle after him, sufficiently motivated by the promise of new spells to follow him.

That afternoon Hargeon was rocked by an explosion that sent tree's and dirt flying into the air from the forest. When some guild members were sent out to investigate all they found was Sasuke and Levy returning, Levy speaking at a thousand words a minute hands flailing wildly and her face sporting an almost manic smile, Sasuke was simply smirking.

The other competitors gulped in trepidation, the rest of the guild simply grinned. This exam was getting far more interesting.

The boat ride had so far been quite pleasant, Sasuke decided as he stretched out in his deck chair and enjoyed the chilled cocktail he was currently sipping on. He wasn't sure why a full bar was being provided on a boat taking them to an exam but he wasn't going to say no to a drink, it's not like the alcohol really affected him much after all, and if it removed some from his competitors from the race, Cana Macao and Wakaba seemed the likely candidates, all the better for him.

The Master had welcomed them aboard some hours ago and they had been making a good pace out into what seemed like empty ocean ever since. Besides from the reveal that Natsu really didn't do travel the journey had been quite pleasant, everyone seemingly choosing to act friendly for now until the exam began, though Sasuke was watching out for tricks regardless, he wasnt that trustfull.

Searching out to the very limits of his senses he finally felt something. They were approaching an Island, their destination? Probably. He gave Levy a nudge waking her from her nap, "We'll be there soon, be ready" She nodded, her face resolute if a bit nervous.

For thirty minutes the boat sailed on as normal, the mood on deck however had grown far more serious as everyone had picked up on the tone shift, pairs had split from the group and last minute plans and tactics were being discussed in hushed whispers. As the island came into view the tension only increased, for many this was their first time seeing the fabled homeland of Fairy Tail and they looked upon the island with awe.

Finally as they got close enough to the Island to see the individual tree's upon the shore the master emerged from below deck.

"Alright you brats who's ready for a little competition" Ignoring the cheers from Natsu, and the complaints from Macao that he was over 30 god dammit, he began his explanation, "Now the exam has three stages, stage 2 can be found down those tunnels" He pointed to the shore where a number of entrances into the rock could be seen. "Stage 1 is getting there, and there are no rules, everything goes. Have fun kids"

Before he could even finish his sentence the boat had rocketed into action. Letting their age show their experience, team old men had been at the front of the boat from the start and had jumped down onto a platform of smoke before the master had finished talking.

Fast on the uptake Sasuke had quickly grabbed Levy and taken a superhuman leap that left the boat rocking in his wake as he flew towards the shore. "Levy platform!" he shouted at the screaming girl, regaining her senses Levy gave a shrill "Solid script: Earth" creating a floating word of earth that Sasuke was able to push off of, jumping closer to the beach with every jump.

Back on the boat Cana and Gray were running over a platform of ice, Freed and Bixlow were floating on the man's puppets. Mira was riding elfman to shore, the big man racing forward in an impressive butterfly stroke as Mira sat upon his back. This left just Erza and Natsu on the boat, Natsu having yet to recover from his bout of sea sickness, Erza had obviously given up on the patient method as she grabbed the boy and threw him off the boat, requipping to her Aqua armour she jumped off herself to follow the pink haired boy.

As the first to the beach Sasuke had the first choice of tunnels to take, as far as he could tell they all seemed identical, "What do you think?" he asked Levy, i can tell there's at least one powerful person down there, but i've got no way to tell which is where.

"From what i've heard we will have to fight one of the other S-Class members, but as there are far more teams than S-Class we'll probably fight each other first to cutdown the numbers.

"So what you're saying is that it doesn't matter what we pick, well that makes this an easy choice" Sasuke setoff down the first tunnel, Levy following along after him.

With a final grunt of exertion Erza tossed Natsu from the waves to the shore, he fell to the beach with a wet thump as his mouth filled with sand as he impacted the beach face first. Wading out of the water to meet him Erza sighed as she stomped on the boys back, making water shoot from his mouth like a burst fountain. "Come on Natsu we're late" she commanded as the boy shakily got to his feet, eyes still swirling from his near death experience.

Eyeing the tunnels ahead she saw that to no surprise all but one tunnel was blocked by a large rock, leaving one tunnel, number 4, as their only option.

"Ragh! Lets go!" Natsu screamed as he ran off down it, senses regained and wounded pride ready to heal itself.

Smiling despite herself Erza hurried after him, she had made a good choice, Natsu was too stupid to give up. Though he had run out of sight already, that was a problem.

A big problem it turned out.

Coming round the corner and out into the opening of a large cave she saw Natsu already unconscious bound and gagged in the middle of the cave. Watching her approach, one foot planted firmly on his captive was Sasuke.

"Erza, nice of you to join us. We we're starting to worry you had drowned on the way here and we would never progress. Sorry about Natsu, we heard him coming from the second he set off down the tunnel and he fell straight into my little tripwire, should i untie him? It might give you more of a fighting chance"

That was more than she could bear to take. Erza moved. From standing to requipping, to launching herself across the room. The movement took less than a second and she unleashed a swipe of her sword fast enough to produce a sonic boom as it cut through the air at lightning speed. Sasuke parried with a swipe from a small knife that appeared in one hand. The strength of it threw her clear across the room and she spat blood as her back smashed into the rocky wall.

"That looked like it hurt" Sasuke called over to her, she growled and let the leopard print armour disperse into magic, replacing it with a more complete set of interlocking plates. "Yes that looks like a better choice, don't want to go full speed if your still slower than your opponent with it"

This time her attack was dodged, Sasuke bobbed and weaved around her as she swiped at him with precise controlled attacks. Getting into the rhythm she made a quick switch into her more aggressive black wing armour **,** the extra range of her larger sword succeeded in making Sasuke block not dodge, the extra weight behind the blade forcing him to dig in his heels and push against her. Erza grinned as she forced him down, her superior strength prevailing as she looked into his eyes. Sasuke was grinning.

Erza gasped as her back was crushed by a massive weight that sent her crashing back to the floor. Turning her head she saw a massive weight resting on her back, a large block reading Iron. 'Stupid' she had forgotten all about Levy in her rage and had paid the price now all she could do was watch as Sasuke looked down on her, like he always was. Erza gave a wild scream and pushed. The weight toppled from her and she sprang to her feet and jumped back to stand across from Sasuke.

"Ready to go again? That was lesson two by the way, never forget the other target. Lesson one was keep an eye on your own team by the way" Sasuke teased, inwardly chuckling as Erza's face turned even more red.

"Stop teasing her Sasuke" Levy begged from the side, Sasuke may not be scared of Erza ,but she was, and she wouldn't have his protection once they got back to the guild.

This seemed to just make Erza angrier, instead of attacking she requipped once more into a rather revealing outfit, a long flowing dress of blades that scraped the ground before she rose into the air, summoning a sea of blades to circle around her in a spinning circle of pointed metal.

"Heaven's Wheel" She called, sending flying blades towards them in a shower of sharp metal.

Sasuke grabbed Levi in tight to his body to shield her from the deluge as he knocked and parried away the shower of metal. Dodging away from the last falling sword he raised his hands to his mouth, ready to retaliate in this battle. Three flaming bolts shot towards Erza who swooped through the air to dodge them, only to come right into the path of another two that struck her in the chest sending her falling to the ground once more, broken plate and fabric trailing after her.

Landing in a crouch she glowed as she requipped again, not wasting a moment as Sasuke came towards her at speed, a large wall of flame leading his assault on her position.

Erza came out of her requip with a smile, planted her feet and held her sword out confidently to tank the coming flames. Her flame empress armour shone bright as the onrushing fire washed over her, thanks to her armour she felt none of the heat and she smiled at Sasuke, confident in her ability once more, she twirled her sword to redirect the flames back at their maker. The sword glowed as it absorbed the flames, a soft glow that turned to a shining beacon that exploded with a shrieking crack sending burning fragments of metal shooting across the cavern.

Erza screamed as her unprotected face was spattered by red hot metal, she brought her hands to the face to tear burning metal away from where it had caught and stuck in her skin.

"Levy water! Now!" Sasuke called as he rushed to Erza's side, grabbing her arms in one hand he quickly removed the offending pieces of metal with the other, "Stupid girl, you saw what happened to Natsu last time. What the hell were you thinking?"

Erza either didn't hear or was incapable of replying, her screams had diminished to a pained whimper that became a soothed moan as Levy dumped water on her, the chilled liquid relieving her from the burning pain. Levy followed up the water with a solid block of ice that she held up to Erza's face.

Erza was heavily breathing now, the immediate rush of pain had left her, leaving just a dull ache that was slowly numbing out as her face bagan to freeze instead. Levy continued to fuss over her but Sasuke had walked over to the now broken sword and was inspecting the hilt. He turned back to her and their eyes met. Now he knew what she knew, that Sword was a pure element sword, capable of absorbing flames of all creation, pure Etherno should not have caused that reaction.

Now Erza was sure, Sasuke had lied before, his power used another source, something that could break even the fabled Flame empress blade. She wasn't sure what had that sort of power, but she doubted it was anything good. She continued to glare at him even after he turned away, she would find out what he was. And then the whole guild would know the truth.

Sasuke and Levy continued further into the cavern. After the battle had been resolved two more doors had opened, one for the victors and the defeated. They had woken Natsu and instructed him to take Erza down the tunnel to receive more expert medical attention than the limited ability of cooling the burns. Then they had proceeded down their tunnel and began their walk forward.

Levy glanced sideways at Sasuke once more, she had been feeling guilty ever since the match end. While the injuries Erza sustained were by no means life threatening they still could potentially form lasting scars and looked rather painful to boot. She was as yet unclear why Erza's sword had reacted as it did to Sasuke's fire and was currently too shy to question it, he wasn't particularly forthcoming with answers that was for sure. Realising she would have to open this conversation herself she opened her mouth to ask-

"Stop, were here"

And was interrupted. Sasuke had flung his arm out across her body before she could take another step forward.

"Ahead is another opening, inside is one person. And there very strong"

Levy gulped, she had forgotten about the task ahead as her thoughts had run with the previous battles but now her focus was snapped back like an elastic. Ahead was an S-class mage, one of the strongest in Fairy Tail if not Fiore as a whole, and she had to fight them.

"Is, Is it Laxus" She managed to squeak, the blonde still frightened her slightly, his personality never particularly resonated with hers.

"No, it's even better" Sasuke was grinning now, and Levy decided that may be more frightening than what was to come, "Don't worry Levy, I'll keep you safe, just go with formation B and this will all work out"

Plan decided they continued forward, round the corner the tunnel widened out to meet the frame of a large Oak door, patterned carving around the edges detailed fairies and monsters circling one another in an endless pattern.

Sasuke pushed them open with enough strength to send them slamming against their hinges. The revealed room was similar to the last, an open rocky cavern with no decoration of sort, standing in the middle was one man, tall, red haired and smiling.

"Haha finally. I thought no one was ever going to arrive" Gildarts laughed as he swept both hands open wide to greet them in, "Welcome to the second task, your job is to prove yourself worthy, I am the sole judge and my condition is thus. To be S-class you must be strong, unless you can defeat me you will fail this exam, so come, Sasuke."

Sasuke stepped forward, "Heh, to be honest i hoped it would be you i faced, kicking Laxus about would just feel mean, I'm going to enjoy this"

Sasuke was sent back into the wall with a slam. Gildarts had moved faster than the eye could see to deck him in the face with a fearsome right hook.

"Oh yeah" Sasuke stood from the rubble, brushing aside the rock and dust from atop himself "I'm going to enjoy this"

He sprinted towards Gildarts and the two began a collision of blows that kicked up dust and debris and shook the walls of the cave themself.

The two seperated, eyes meeting as they shared identical grins from the fight. Sasuke found himself actually struggling physically, he could feel as Gildarts magic threatened to tear him apart, forcing him to use his own chakra to defend, and so reducing the power of his own punched that stopped him from blowing Gildarts away.

"You really are strong" Sauke complimented the man across from him "You certainly live up to the hype"

Gildarts chuckled, pulling a fist back ready to destroy everything in front of him "I am the Hype!" he struck.

His punch released enough force to cause parts of the ceiling to collapse, the cavern was filled with the sound of rockfall and the sight of thick dust that hide all from view.

Looking around Gildarts was pleasantly surprised to be snuck up on. Te kick to his rear sending him shooting out of the dust cloud to the caverns roof. Sasuke had survived, and was standing below smirking up at him.

"Kill him"

Gildarts back hit something soft. Turning he saw the roof of the cavern had filled with words. Soft bouncy floating words, that spelt hydrogen. Gildarts had just enough time to wander what that was before another word was sent up to meet them. This one said Fire, but Gildarts was easily able to dodge the slow moving spell, letting it skim past his head.

Then the world erupted and Gildarts was suddenly on the ground again, and his entire body felt like singed meat.

Groaning he pulled himself to his feet, Sasuke now stood across from him and almost behind him was Levy, ducking away from Gildarts gaze as much as she could.

Gildarts burst out laughing. "Hahaha that was fun, really didn't see that coming, I'm sorry to say i almost forgot about you Levi, looks like i paid for that! Hahaha" doubling over himself Gildarts collapsed into a further bout of laughter that carried on for a full minute before, with visible effort, he stifled himself to a last chuckle before continuing "Ha we'll call it there, anymore than that and i think the cave will collapse"

A stone fell from the ceiling, as if to prove the point, and all three moved towards the exit in a slightly rushed manner.

"Well" Gildarts paused to listen to the rumbling sound of falling rocks, now coming from behind them, "That all finished with a record low amount of destruction. Let's head on to the third task" He set off down the corridor, still laughing uproariously.

"I can't tell, is he really smart or strong? Or really stupid?"

"Levy, Levy. Soon enough you'll realise the stronger someone is the more chance there completely insane, normal people don't have the drive to do so."

"Well what about you, your pretty strong"

Sasuke snorted and set off after Gildarts leaving Levy standing by herself in the tunnel.

"I wish that didn't answer my question but it really did" She ran off after the two insane mages, considering her life choices.

The meeting place for the post 2nd round was in uproar. On one side Gray and Cana were helping to finish heal Erza, who was hidden beneath the large ice sculpture perched upon her face. Next to them Macao and Wakaba lay groaning, the wounds they had received at the hands of Mira still fresh and sore. Mira herself was still kicking and screaming behind a gag, despite being beaten to within an inch of her life by Laxus she just kept getting up again, so in the end he had simply chained her up to end the fight and had neglected to untie her yet, no one else seemed willing to do so either.

Freed and Bixlow sat sulking, their defeat from the Master still fresh in their minds, this left Laxus as the only one around to try and calm Natsu who was mad that he hadn't got to do anything. That is if punching qualified as calming.

The master perked up from his nap as he felt the presence of Gildarts coming towards him. From the last cavern the man emerged, hair filled with dust and smiling broadly. The master sighed, great everyone had lost, that meant no one would be made S-class this year, he really needed to rethink this exam format.

Sasuke appeared from behind Gildarts. He looked no worse for where besides the dust that seemed to be covering all of them as Levy appeared too, blue hair filled with pebbles and clothes tattered and torn.

"Yo Master! One for the third task here"

"What!" screamed everyone who was able. Even Mira making muffled sounds of surprise from behind her gag. Laxus had doubled over laughing and fallen from his seat.

"What? He was pretty strong. Plus i collapsed the cave so had to cancel the rest"

Everyone sighed at that second line, that sounded more like Gildarts.

"Yes!" Cheered the master. Blanching when everyone stared at him, "Um hmph, I mean, Congratulations Sasuke, as the only Mage left in the competition i procalim you the new S-class of Fairy Tail. Follow me for the initiation, otherwise known as, the third task"

The clearing erupted in complaints and arguments as everyone who was able protested the decision, except Laxus who was too busy laughing on the ground still.

Sasuke followed the master through the forest. The shadows danced around them as they passed under the large trees. This really was a beautiful place, Sasuke decided, the large forest reminded him of Konoha, the empty Island untouched by humans in recent years gave way for a natural feeling so hard to recreate.

The Master stopped ahead of him. They had arrived at an open clearing, the edges of the tree's and the path Sasuke walked was cast in shadow but the clearing was lit up by a circle clear of greenery above it like no plant was willing to grow in what should be contested space. In the middle of the clearing stood a tall white Gravestone with large letters carved into it.

"Here we are. The Shrine of the First Master of Fairy Tail, Mavis. This is where all Mages of Fairy Tail must make their Oathe. Step forward Sasuke, place your hands upon the stone, and swear to protect and serve the Guild"

Sasuke stepped forward towards the stone. Placing a hand upon its chilled service he began to speak.

"I Uchiha Sasuke swear to fight for Fairy Tail, to take missions for the guild and complete them to the best of my ability. I swear to protect my guildmates and help them in achieving their goals."

'Liar'

The voice sounded in his head, and Sasuke jumped like he'd been stung.

'Do not lie to me boy, but do not fear to tell the truth, speak in your mind, tell me your wishes and i will judge you truly'

'Who is this, how are you speaking to me?'

The voice giggled. Like a little girl, 'silly. I am Mavis the First Master, i judge all who join the upper echelons of my guild. Now tell me, what do you desire, what drives you?'

'I'm searching for the truth. I'm searching for my friend, i need answers and Fairy Tail gives me the resources and contact to help me'

'But is that all you do? Do you not spend time with the guild? Do you not party with the members? Do you enjoy it?'

'Well, Yes. I do.'

'Well! That's all i need to hear.'

Sasuke fought the urge to smack his face into his palms.

'I don't need to hear some pledge of sacrifice and duty, that's not what Fairy Tails about. You are free to search for you own dreams Sasuke, just don't ignore your friends at the guild when you do.'

'I'll try to keep that in mind'

'Great! In that case… Welcome, to the S-class'

And the gravestone began to glow, the white stone humming as it turned a radiant blue. Sasuke's guild mark lit up and he felt the nature of it change and twist.

"Congratulations Sasuke, you have passed the third trial. You are now aloud access to the 2nd floor of the guild building and and quest up there." The master was in front of him now and giving him a strange look.

"You've risen quickly through this guild Sasuke. I'm proud of the progress you've made and i look forward to seeing how far you can rise. But please, don't be afraid to trust us, i know you have secrets Sasuke, you don't get to this age without learning how to see a man's true nature, just try to enjoy yourself a bit more."

Sasuke traced the edge of his guildmark with his index finger. Not meeting the eye of the Master as he considered the very similar conversations he had just had.

"Sure" he smiled "I'll try"

 _It took 3 months of searching to find the other humans. Their village was thriving, large stone towers, streets, signs of infrastructure, all from a civilisation that could not be more than twenty years old._

 _Sasuke snuck through the town, easily dodging the handful of guards who patrolled the outskirts. Sticking to the roofs he quickly made his way through, watching and observing as he went along. Everywhere he looked he saw happy families, children playing and generally good people. What made them attack his tribe? What drove them to such cruel acts?_

 _He felt the answer before he could think anymore._

 _His measured stealthy movement vanished as he leaped forward, clearing three buildings in one bound, moving again the second he landed to land on the side of the largest tower. He ran up the side and kicked in a window high up on the tower, pausing in the window sill as he gaped at the sight inside._

 _It was Naruto._

 _Not just Naruto._

" _Sasuke! Welcome, you finally came to see me!"_

 _Naruto sat upon a comfortable looking sofa, under one arm another figure stirred as if waking from sleep._

" _Oh where are my manners. Sasuke meet my wife, say hello Hinata"_

 _And the woman looked up at Sasuke with white pupiless eyes._

 **Well there goes another one. Not going to lie, i'm not happy with this chapter. It was never supposed to get this long but things just kept cropping up and it never started to flow together nicely.**

 **Two more chapters of backstory then we can finally get to Canon. Erza has figured something out and Mavis has appeared. On that note, Mavis has not realised what Sasuke is, how could she? So dont expect anything on that front.**

 **I'm expecting some backlash over OOC ness from certain characters this chapter, my exscuse is going to be simply, its not canon yet, Erza changes a lot after gaining the recognition of S-Class, inversely Laxus gets worse as even that doesnt make his grandpa love him.**

 **I know Mystogan should be there already but i have decided to scrap that, he wont appear till later, shit dont make sense otherwise.**

 **Review answers:**

 **Rain: Thanks man, yeah i like that chapter too, not a fan of this one unfortunately but next one i've got cool stuff planned**

 **Petem: Thanks again man, hope you can see what Naruto was working towards now, Naruto is always driven by protecting his friends, how do you protect someone from death? Bring them back!**

 **Hades the scribe: I think i know the fic you mean, the one where Naruto's a hollow right? Ii enjoyed it but got distracted by tv and never finished im not much of a bleach fan and it got so heavy in bleach lore i was a bit distracted. Excellent point with Orochimaru/Pain thing hope this clears it up. Naruto was trying to recreate his whole life and friends hence the experimentation thing**

 **Crimson: Yep Narutos bijuu absorbption made him fully immortal, we'll see that soon.**

 **DontMindMe Anon: Thanks man, yeah im a hypocrite as thats the thing that annoys me the most with stories too, im just going to blame the fact im a computer scientist not an english man, If length.(word) 5 : DontLearn**

 **Thanks for reading, (please dont give up due to this chapter)**

 **Peace.**


	5. Watching and Waiting

_They could have been back in Konoha. Sasuke watched Naruto and Hinata chatting below a tree, a picnic spread out between the two. Outside the park the main street of the village teemed with life as the people went about their daily lives. If it wasn't for the faces of the dead walking Sasuke would have thought it pleasant. Instead he forced himself to watch as Shikamaru chatted to Iruka, a tiny baby Jiraiya running down the street, a store that he was positive was an ichiraku clone. It made him sick._

 _They were all fake. Fake bodies with fake minds. And inside them all was the foul chakra that had destroyed his friends. That and something else. This magic was not chakra, and Naruto would not tell him how he had created it._

 _It was time to investigate._

S-Class quests were hardly different from the normal sort, Sasuke had decided. The monsters were slightly stronger and the locations more remote, but other than that, they were quite similar to the upper A-rank. He had heard about quests ranked for their political strife, but he was not touching those with a ten foot pole, politics was never worth the money.

The quest he was returning from had been of the former kind. The monster had been large but lumbering, its great strength useless as Sasuke flowed around its sweeping attacks before piercing its heart with a well timed burning thrust.

He was looking forward to a rest. Since Gildarts had set off on his 100 year quest the month before he and Laxus had been picking up the slack, and the workload just increased as they did so well. Really it would be a relief when the S-Class exams came round again, they could use another hand.

He made good time back, arriving before sunset and headed back to the guild to grab some food.

The guild was as loud and boisterous as usual. He returned the nods and waves of several members as he made his way to the bar.

"Oy Sasuke! Over here!" Cana was sat in her usual spot, a beer in hand and a plate of fries in front of her. Sasuke pulled up a stool alongside her, quickly stealing a few chips from her plate as she took a swig from her drink. "Your back soon, i swear you only left for your quest this morning"

"That was two days ago Cana. Have you been drunk the entire time?"

"Hic, maybe" She grinned at him.

Sasuke sighed and turned to the bar maid to order his own meal and drink, taking the beer given and draining it in one, receiving another straight away, the service was excellent if nothing else.

"I would have thought you would be training for the S-Class exams? Try and get past the first stage this time"

This sombered her slightly and she sat her mug down with more force than strictly necessary, "Why? It's not like i have a chance at winning. Erza or Mira will win this year, and I'm not getting in the middle of that cat fight."

"Well not with that attitude. There's your first problem straight away"

"I'm not even sure if i'll be chosen this year, Levy has become a real monster recently, she may be picked over me"

That was a fair point. Sasuke looked over to where Levy had her head deep in a book. Ever since he had introduced her to basic chemistry she had become five times more dangerous, there were few things less destructive than a puddle of water and some Cesium.

They were interrupted before they could continue by the master, who had hopped up on the bar in front of them, his own drink in hand.

"Yo Sasuke. Welcome back. Mission complete i assume? Good, i have a little job for you, if your not busy?"

"Depends on what you want, i was planning on just relaxing for a week or two"

"A rest! But Sasuke we have so many jobs for you, if you take a rest it's all going to be on Laxus! Then he'll complain. Then I'll have to bribe him to work more!" The master was begging now, though his attempts of using puppy eyes was not helping his cause with Sasuke. "Besides my idea IS a way to reduce your workload"

That got Sasuke's attention, enough that he actually put down his drink to show he was listening.

"I want you to take Erza and Mira on an S-Class with you. The exams will be held after you get back and i'm thinking we make two new members. The ranks are quite thin at the moment no one passed for years before you and Laxus did."

"So what do you say, babysit the girls on a quick mission to show them the ropes then the chance to rest when those two takeover afterwards. You know Erza's work ethic after all, and im sure if you challenged Mira to keep up with her she'd try to overtake."

Sasuke considered the offer. On one hand he could offload all his quests on to the two eager newbies, on the other he would have to put up with the two fighting each other for a whole mission. But he could stop going on these useless quests which didn't even require his skill level. Plus if he didnt he would just be nagged by Mira till she became S-Class anyway. That decided it.

"Fine, but i get to choose the mission"

"Within reason, no choosing a 5 year quest to try and kill them off" The master joked.

Sasuke glared at the tiny man, then got up and walked over to the staircase. "If i do this i'm having a months break when they turn S-class"

"Two weeks!"

"Three"

"Done"

The deal set Sasuke headed up determined to find a nice simple mission, hopefully one with rail connection to the start point, no way was he putting up with them for a full journey.

As the trio's journey dragged into its seventh hour Sasuke considered Suicide. That would at least give him ten minutes peace while he revived.

It had all been going so well, he found a nice mission on the coast, just an hour away from Hargeon by train. Mira and Erza had even been pleasant for the first hour as they were too excited by the mission to fight each other.

Then the train broke down. Then the bandits attacked, though that was probably the high point of the day. Then the two girls complained about how to deal with their new prisoners. So now he was travelling on the slowest moving train ever, with two arguing girls in a rear carriage filled with tied up bandits who stunk to high heaven. It was times like this he wished he could die.

Thankfully the journey was almost over, he could see the lights of the town on the horizon and smell the salt of the sea in the air. Even the two terrors had calmed slightly, all of them looking forward to a good night's sleep.

"So what's the plan Sasuke?" Mira asked, "Where are we staying tonight?"

"No idea. I thought we would have got there hours ago so i thought we might be done in a day. Now though, its your mission, im just babysitting. You tell me the plan."

"I know a rather lovely place in town" Erza piped up, clearly excited by the opportunity of rest, "It has a spa, soft beds and they make the best cake in town, we should go there straight away!"

"Heh, typical" Mira spat, quickly drawing a furious gaze from Erza, "I say we push on and find these guys straight away, i want to crack some heads. Best place to do that will be in a bar. So let's go get a drink and see what we can find out, if nothing happens we can just get a room there."

"I guess finishing quickly would be good. The less time spent with you the better."

"Why you!" Mira lunged for Erza who met her halfway and they fell to the ground in a flurry of fists.

Sasuke left them to their fight, it wasn't his job to keep them safe from each other. As far as plans went Mira's was the better, even Erza could admit that, and a drink sounded perfect after this journey from hell.

"I see a place now" The train was already pulling into the station, the town not being very large made it obvious that the one Inn in town was right in front of them. Mira and Erza changed the direction of their fight, pushing and pulling each other as they attempted to continue hitting each other and look out the window at the same time.

Out the window was one long street with the majority of the buildings in the town lined up along it. Dead ahead of them was the one establishment which remained open at this time of night, large open windows spilled light onto the empty streets and raucous music could be faintly heard even from inside the moving train.

"Well, if we are going to find the deadbeats of the town, it will be there"

Mira nodded in agreement to Erza's words. "Looks like a fun place"

"Enough" Sasuke interrupted before Erza could respond and start the fight again. "You two can head over now, I'll deal with the bandits and meet you there. Find out what you can or book us some beds, I'll see you soon"

The two nodded before quickly departing out of the window of the train which was crawling to a halt. Sasuke turned to the bound captives, noticing one of them was awake and watching him.

"That wasn't a good idea was it?" The bandit nodded.

"You reckon the place will be standing by the time i get there?" The prisoner slowly shook his head.

"Yeah me too. Meh. Not my problem"

By some miracle the bar was still standing by the time Sasuke arrived. Although the music had stopped and had been replaced by the sounds of a cheering crowd. Inside he found exactly what he thought he would, Erza and Mira rolling around on the floor trying to punch the lights out of each other.

Sasuke ignored them completely and headed to the bar, sitting down in front of the barman who was rather anxiously watching as the two girls rolled around on his floor.

"Can i get a drink please"

"Hello?"

Sasuke was completely ignored as the barman leaped across the bar headed towards the fight as the two rolled into a table, upending it and spilling drinks everywhere. He sighed and was about to stand up to break the fight up when a bottle of Sake was placed in front of him.

"Here, that should keep you happy till that idiot has finished cleaning up"

Sasuke looked up to find a large man smiling down on him.

"Welcome to town, don't think i've ever seen you around before, what brings you here stranger?"

Sasuke took the bottle, popping the lid and taking two large chugs before answering, "Rumours" He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a cutout from a newspaper and placing it on the bar, "7 disappearances in the last month alone from this town and its surroundings, i've been paid to find and retrieve them"

"Hmm good thing that" The man took the bottle back to have a drink himself, "It's been a right nasty business that, one of my own friends daughter got taken a few weeks back, he's been mad with grief since"

"Really, any idea who could be responsible? I've only begun my investigation so any help is appreciated"

"Your better off asking him then. I'd leave it for the morning though he'll be drunk by now, and all the worse for it. You'll find him in the house two from the end, Barden's the name, he'll be your best chance for info in this town"

"Thank you, you've been very helpful" Sasuke rose from his seat and strode across the room to where the two girls were still fighting. Reaching out he grabbed a handful of hair in each hand and tugged, instantly separating the two as they were lifted from the ground by their hair, each crying from the pain and clawing at his hands.

He gave them a last shake and dropped them on the ground. "Enough. Your being an embarrassment to the guild." He then turned to the Innkeeper who was already rushing to clean up the mess his team had left in their wake. "I apologise for the mess. Do you have any rooms free? We will be staying for at least a night possibly more"

The Innkeeper looked positively pained at the idea of letting them stay in his establishment but wilted under the disturbing presence Sasuke gave off, running behind the bar and retrieving two room keys, "Here, rooms 201 and 202. Breakfast is from 7. Enjoy your stay" He gestured to the stairs his position clear, if they were going to stay they could leave the bar and give him some peace. Sasuke lead the way up the stairs, the two girls following, Mira muttering rebelliously under her breath the entire way.

Sasuke held the door to a room open and gestured to Mira who stomped in, Erza made to follow when he slammed the door behind Mira.

"Hey" she cried "What are you doing? Where am i staying?"

He stared at her like she was stupid "You think after all that I'd let you two share a room? I'd wake up to the whole town destroyed. Your staying with me." He moved over to the other door and walked through it. Looking back over his shoulder when he didn't hear her following, he laughed at her shocked expression. "Haha whats that look for? You think I'm trying to get you by yourself? Hmm? Think i have dubious intentions for you?" He paused to laugh again, "Please, your not really my type. Way too controlling"

Sasuke went into the room still chuckling, leaving Erza to stand in the corridor face burning in a mixture of shame embarrassment and rage.

In fact for the rest of the night she didn't speak a word to Sasuke, not that he seemed to care, if anything her silence seemed to amuse him further.

It was not till they were finally in bed for the night did she talk again.

"Sasuke, are you awake?"

"Hm"

"Do you- Do you think I'm ready for S-class?" Erza lay on her back staring at the ceiling, and so missed Sasuke rolling over to face her. "Last year, i thought i was ready but then you beat me so easily, it didn't seem like you were even trying. Plus i totally failed to control Natsu, what if i did that with a team. I could get everyone killed…" She trailed off, staring towards the ceiling as if she could see straight through it.

"Thats why your ready" Sasuke spoke quietly, but the fact he replied at all was enough to shock Erza from her thoughts. "Your right. Last year you were overconfident. You thought no one would challenge you and paid the price"

Erza sighed in shame from the memories, reaching up to pull crimson locks through her fingers.

"That's why this year you'll succeed"

"What, but i haven't got much better from last year"

"In skill no. But in mentality, you've aged a 100 years. Sometimes that makes all the difference" Sasuke rolled away, signaling the end of the conversation.

Erza lay there, thoughts swirling in her head. 'He's not that bad afterall' she decided 'Even Sasuke belongs at Fairy Tail" Making herself more comfortable she pulled the blanket up to her chin and settled in to sleep.

Mira knocked on the door for the second time. They were all gathered outside the house of Barden, the man who had lost his daughter, but had yet to get any sort of response from inside.

Sasuke was ready to give up and walk away when the door next to them opened.

"Will you stop that racket!" A large house wife shouted, baby held under her arm slurping from a milk bottle. "Can't you see the man's not home!"

"We apologise for the disturbance" Erza attempted to placate the women, "Do you know where he might be, we wish to question him about the disappearances"

"I'd try the bottom of the ocean" She spoke coldly, "The fool ran off last night to the docks yelling he was going to search every ship until he found his daughter. Not that i blame the poor fool. There's no other clues going and the rune knights are as useless as ever"

"But why the docks, surely they've checked the ships in port?" Mira questioned the lady who snorted at the statement.

"Not in these parts they dont, this is prime smuggling territory. Captain slips the dockmaster a pouchfull and he could be openly carrying the crown jewels and no one would bat an eye"

"Well i think we know are heading then" Erza turned to the group to address them as one, "To the docks"

The docks were fairly empty so early in the morning. Fishermen were still out on the sea catching the morning tide and sailors of the larger cargo ships were still drunk in the pub or passed out in their bunks.

Feeling out with his senses Sasuke immediately picked up what could only be a slaver ship. Over 50 non magicals tightly packed in the lower decks of one of the smallest ships currently docked. Surprisingly it gave no outward appearance of its grim hold, colourful bright sails and sparkling wooden planks that had evidently been washed and scrubbed of barnacles. Still this was not his mission, he could end it now if he wished, now to see how the girls would handle it.

"What do you think?" Erza questioned Mira, attempting to work like a team.

Mira had her eyes screwed up as she rather obviously wracked her brains for a solution. She sighed and shrugged, "I've got nothing. Lets just raid them all and hope for the best"

Erza seemed unwilling to go with the strategy but clearly had no better idea. The two were even preparing to set off to a ship each when Erza was almost trampled by a delivery cart.

"Wowa", the driver called out, swiftly slamming on the breaks, "Sorry about that missy. Been doing this all night I'm falling asleep at the wheel"

"That's alright" Erza replied as she dusted down her armour, "Say, you've been here all night? By chance did you see a man coming to the docks last night, may have been screaming and shouting, our friend was drunk last night and ran off"

"Oh him!" The man broke off into a round of deep chuckles "Yes he was here. Round one in the morning he came running in screaming his head off. Don't you worry your friends got him"

"Our friends?"

"Yes. The ones in that boat there" He pointed to the slavers ship, "They explained how much of a drinker your friend is, mind you they all looked a rough lot, you take some strange company miss" He released the break and moved his cart off, still laughing under his breath.

"Well" Mira cracked her knuckles and stretched her arms out, "I think we have our target"

"Agreed", Erza drew her sword and turned too the ship, "Sasuke watch for escapes, Mira with me"

In a burst of displaced air they were gone. Two jet trails of female power hurtling towards the ship. Mira reached it first, choosing to forway the clear entrance ramp, instead punching straight through the hull and setting the boat rocking in the water.

Erza jumped high above, coming down with an overhead strike that shattered the deck in two giving her passage into the belly of the ship.

Sasuke watched as they disappeared into the wreck. He waited for another 5 minutes as the sound of crashing and screaming drifted from the open wounds of the ship.

The fight had drawn a crowd of onlookers who were all creeping closer to the hole Mira had made to attempt to look inside. The ship master had ran out of his house, half dressed, and was rushing forward when Sasuke held his arm out to stop him, "Mage business" he pushed the man back, lifting him off his feet so that he fell to the floor in a heap, "Stay out of it"

This only increased the mutterings from the crowd, and Sasuke received a good deal of suspicious glares from some shady looking men who all started to slowly walk back to their respective ships, smugglers no doubts.

By now the sounds from inside had ceased and Sasuke felt it time to check up on his team mates.

Inside the ship he followed the trail of splintered wood and moaning bodies till he eventually came to the stairs to the lowest level. The first room was seemingly legitimate cargo, the whole hall was stacked with large boxes of wheat flour and koji. He stepped past it to find what must have been the last line of defence, four men laid passed out on the floor with one more still conscious attempting to crawl towards the next room.

"You bitches are dead" He whispered, "No one messes with Huge shipping"

Sasuke stomped on his head as he walked past, swiftly knocking the man out as he stepped into the final room.

Inside was a crowd of cheering and crying young people, all of them no older than 30, and with them was Erza and Mira.

The two were quickly making their way through the throng, they had evidently got their hands on the keys to the chains that bound the prisoners and were swiftly unlocking them. The captives once freed were quick to join the effort to help free their fellow prisoners and the mood inside was quickly turning celebratory as all but he last few were unchained.

The two girls were almost being mobbed by the crowd at this point but were taking it in their stride, Mira taking the compliments as the natural order and Erza simply brushing them off in her professional manner. Soon the last prisoner was released and the girls lead the cheering crowd out of the ship to the docks.

Outside a crowd was waiting to see the result of the fight. A cheering hoard of people was clearly not what they expected to emerge from the wrecked ship but soon they were cheering soon as they recognised faces in the crowd, of friends and family thought lost and soon there were several happy reunions amongst the celebrating crowd.

Sasuke stood with Erza on the top of the ramp, watching the happy crowd below. He turned to Erza, noticing the almost pained smile she was forcing.

"Well done, mission complete. I guess you were ready for S-Rank after all"

"Yes" She sniffed and rubbed her eyes before turning to him with a smile, "I am glad i was able to save these people. Slavery. It is a disgusting trade and i aim to stamp it out where ever i see it."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, "Indeed. Free will is one of the most important facets of the human existence. Without it, we're little better than animals, and monsters" He pointed behind them to one of the groaning slavers, "What should we do with this lot? I doubt this town has a prison big enough for this lot after all the bandits we handed in last night. Besides, prisons too good for scum like this"

"Sasuke!" Erza barked, fixing him with a steely gaze, "I hope your not implying what i think you are. We do not condone killing at Fairy Tail. These men are scum, true. But they will get a chance for redemption. After a long spell in prison of course"

Sasuke grunted. But offered no signs of agreement.

"Any way. Erza continued, for now i have Mira chaining them all up below in their own shackles" She grinned, clearly amused at the twist of fate "We can see about transporting them later"

"I believe i can help in that"

The two mages turned to see the man standing at the bottom of the ramp below them.

"Captain Leold of the Rune Knights, at your service" He bowed briefly to the two. "I was on holiday here with my family but am now returning to the capitol by ship. If you can chain all those slavers up i can fix there ship to mine and tow it to the city gaol"

"I see" Erza turned to Sasuke "Well that seems to be an easy solution"

"Hn"

"Very well. Thank you Captain we'll leave this in your hands"

It took little more than an hour to prepare the boats to leave. The prisoners were all chained up, the bandits from town were fetched too, to save making another trip later. Two sailors from the transport ship stayed with the prisoners to keep watch over them and feed them over the journey.

Erza and Mira waved as the ship departed, along the dockside many of the newly freed prisoners were still celebrating and were waving alongside them.

Sasuke watched it all from his seat on top of the registers building. He watched a boat full of criminals depart to a life in prison. A sentence that would be only 15 years for even the worst slavery due to the lax laws of the country, plenty of time for them to get out and cause more hurt, they were true scum. Scum didn't deserve life. Sasuke raised a hand to the heavens, hand splayed out and blocking the sun from his face, before swiping it down in one fluid motion.

Out across the water the ship was just picking up wind as it sailed into a perfect day of weather. The sun was shining. There was not a cloud in the sky. Which was why all were taken by surprise by the screaming bolt of lightning that struck the trailing boat like the gods own fury.

The mast disintegrated as it turned to ash. Water began rising from the hole that had pierced clean through the already damaged ship.

The crowd on shore could only gasp in shock. Too far away to offer anything resembling help.

The other boat frantically began to slow and turn, but its momentum kept it going so that it pulled the trailing boat apart by the rope connecting them.

The slavers boat was split clean in two. The hole Erza had created before linking with the lightning strike to create a crack dead along the centre of the ship.

Screams filled the air for just a moment as the prisoners sank beneath the waves. Their shackles both weighing them down and preventing them from hanging on as the floor tipped way beneath them.

Erza gaped at the scene playing out before her eyes. These people. Horrible people but people nonetheless had all just died. How could this happen? She looked to the sky which had remained clear throughout the ordeal. No clouds. So where had the lightning come from.

She looked around wildly looking for any clue and saw only one thing even slightly suspicious. Sasuke sat alone atop a building. When had he left the group? Why had he left the group?

Sasuke the man with the strange power of effecting naturally formed Etherno…

But he couldn't have killed them! He was a mage of Fairy Tail. One of her comrades.

She continued to watch him as he stared across the water. Was it just her imagination or did he seem smug.

His face was as neutral as ever. But his eyes. His eyes seemed to burn with a fury that promised destruction to all in their path.

Erza shuddered. She had just been beginning to trust him. But could she?

Erza had no answer to that.

 _Sasuke listened as Naruto once again explained his experiments._

" _So by neutralising the harmful parts of natural chakra that they take into the body with the components i've made their bodies naturally create they make a stable source of energy they can use to harness their abilities"_

" _Yes but what is that component"_

" _It really isn't important Sasuke. Now why are we worrying over this again. Come on i have something to show you! You've been moping around here for months i thought i'd make something to keep you busy"_

 _Sasuke followed Naruto to the hospital, while nothing compared to the fantastical halls of medical centre it was a far cry better than the primitive tent Naruto had used back at the tripe. They continued up two floors to a long room filled with the cries of babies._

" _Here we go" Naruto stopped in front of one crib "You seem so lonely by yourself, i thought you'd want a companion again, So who better than you favourite person in the world. Sasuke meet your wife!"_

 _He drew back the cloth to reveal a baby. The faintest whiffs of pink hair on her bald head and bright green eyes that stared into Sasuke's soul._

" _Well what do you think i t took a while to make pink ha-"_

 _Sasuke stopped listening as Naruto trailed off into an explanation of the difficulties of the procedure._

 _He felt sick. No, scrap that he was going to be sick._

 _Sasuke grabbed a nearby waste bin and heaved into it. When he was done he turned to stare at Naruto who was watching him with confusion._

" _Your sick. I- How cou- No!"_

 _Sasuke turned and ran._

 _Away from the devil who walked in his friends body and called for him to return._

 _Away from the village filled with faces of his past that haunted his dreams._

 _Away from the baby that stared at him so innocently yet made his heart fill with hate and despair._

 _Sasuke ran. With no direction. No plan. Just Away._

 **Well that was longer than expected. I originally planned to deal with Lisanna by this**

 **chapter but it just got away from me. Sorry about the slow update, my Grandma unfortunately passed away so i was very busy dealing with funeral arrangement and was in no state to write. Hopefully back to schedule now.**

 **Stuff is happening! Albeit very slowly, i can't seem to condense my writing even though we're not even out the prologue yet, this story is meant to start with Lucy's arrival i swear.**

 **Authors rant: This is my first story so i was quite interested in the number of reviews/favs i'd get and so was looking at some of my fave stories to compare. I came across an anomaly, my favourite fic, the fic i think is the best Naruto AU on the site has less than a 1000 favs! This is ridiculous. Everyone please, stop reading my story straight away go read**

' **Black Cloaks, Red Clouds'**

 **I'm guessing it's not got much love as Tenten is the main character but that fic is amazing. It's got the most in depth discussion of butterfly effect ever, terrific OC's that fit in the future timeline perfectly and the BEST orochimaru overlord villain ever. I will just say imagine Orochimaru as 4th Hokage. Imagine that universe, will you don't have too, this story perfectly shows what would happen. Go read it!**

 **Reviews:**

 **Hades: Yeah for me bleach and fairy tail both have excelent intros and build ups then fail with the power creep, though both have awesome bits e.g. Bleachs soul society is one of the best shonen arcs period and Fairy Tails grand magic games is just great. Please stop reading my mind though, im gonna have to change the plot now...**

 **Petem: Yeah get what you mean with the Sasuke vibe, i hope this clears up that he doesnt really care, its just to infiltrate the guild of 'friendship' he's trying to act slightly friendly, he does hang more with laxus more because right now laxus is pretty chill before he gets all power mad and angry with his grandad**

 **Rain: What were you saying about Naruto's sanity? Yeah it somehow gets worse.**

 **Kanna: Thanks i'll try**

 **Some Grammar Guy: Thanks i missed that bit. My grammar is fairly shit so i do apreciate it being pointed out, i'll change them now.**

 **Thats it for today, Thanks everyone who reviewed!**


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